


Earth Renewal

by Cucuxumusu



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Cool Pets, First Time, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Pining, Sci-Fy, Sexual Tension, Slavery, Spaceships, Surviving, hate to lovers, psychic powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2020-01-13 07:29:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18464308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cucuxumusu/pseuds/Cucuxumusu
Summary: After years of surviving alone among wild breath-taking nature, Ichigo finds himself persecuted by an Arrancar, one of the creatures who had enslaved humanity and destroyed civilization. The hunt had already been going on for a month, but Ichigo know his tricks have a limit and he needs a new tactic to get rid of the handsome monster. But why is this one blue-haired man so obsessed with capturing him? Will he ever find out why Arrancars had invaded Earth?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a dream, recent sci-fy fics and several promps from a cartain chat. I hope you guys like it. Also I would like to thanks Owari26 for helping me pick the right idea in the last moment, thanks daling, you helped a lot. 
> 
> On the other hand, the characters are not mine and belong to Tite Kubo, I won't profit or take any advantage of them.

 

BBC report. 20 of April of 2019. Afternoon news:

_“...The new illness seems to be spreading worldwide with a relentless pace. Millions of people keep falling dead in the middle of the streets causing chaos and damage among the population and cities. Scientist are still trying to find a cure while public health institutions remain saturated with patients and new victims…”_

 

 

CSIC. Comunicado de prensa. 29 of April of 2019:

_“...We are shocked with this new virus. We have never seen something alike on nature. It spreads like a normal flue, but it mutates and changes within hours instead of the years it takes the normal influenza virus. Apart from that, this new virus can also spread those quick mutations upon the host cells, causing an accelerated type of cancer. It induces organ failure and death within minutes. We don’t even understand how such an organism can survive under such conditions without destroying itself, however, it is surviving, evolving, and slowly destroying humanity...”_

 

 

Tokyo FM, morning program, 11 of May of 2019:

_“...The new object that had appeared on our atmosphere looks like one of those Star Wars ships: huge, sophisticated and mildly threatening. It 's amusing and terrifying at the same time, but I, as a sci-fy fan, can’t help but feel excited and wonder about its nature. The science comunity however keeps trying to identify and understand it all when we all know what it is...”_

 

 

Whampus_94. Twitter, 25 September of 2019:

_“Atomic bombs had failed. All institutions are destroyed. Humans are being taken captive. Attempts at treaties have been futile. WTF are Arrancars? Will humanity survive this one? #Worried #WorldEnding2019 #Survivor505”_

 

 

Anonymous. Longyou, Grotto caves. Blood on stone. 2021:

_“HELP ME. Help ME. they are coming. HEEEEELP. god PLEASE. helphelphelp. Oh god, they are here.”_

 


	2. Survivor 1515

 

~Two years later~

The forest looked damp and cold as Ichigo ran between the tall pines feeling his pulse on his throat, and his lungs burn with the effort. He skidded over the ground covered with brown pine needles almost falling on his face, but he graciously righted himself, took a concentrating breath, and kept on running.

Late in the summer, but high up the mountain, the forest of old pine trees and tall beeches felt alive but silent around him. Caressed by a warm sun, but so high and remote that snow still hid between a few rocks, it provided shelter for a few wild creatures, resistant vegetation and a solitary human. Ichigo however didn’t care right now about the wild beauty of the place around him or the dangers lurking in shadows, what he cared about right now was that the thick canopy of the pines and the little mist curling around the mountain could hid him from his persecutors.

He kept on running.

The aircraft behind him made almost no sound as it followed him over the pines shaking their tops and causing soft air currents that made more needles and a few pinecones fall to the ground. It was a slender machine, small, but fast and manurable, a wonder of technology. _It had also been tracking him for half an hour_. Still, with little space to land between the trees and the lack of visibility, the persecution had been more a game of endurance than a real threat.

The fact made Ichigo smile. Two years and he was still alive and kicking, hiding in what could be the most remote place in the world, with nature and food around him, and no other living being harming or _wanting to enslave him._

He jumped over another rock.

His military boots adhered to the grey stone easily propelling him between the trees as if he weighed nothing. The backpack he carried however was heavy, slowing him and his progress, but it contained his whole life right now, his food supplies, clothes and memories, and he won't ditch it if he could prevent it. The hunting knife on his leg was also uncomfortable, sharp and dangerous against the thin fabric of his trouser, but Ichigo had learned his lessons long ago about running around without a weapon.

Last time he had forgotten it, he had needed to punch an Arrancar on the face, and in consequence, that Arrancar had been following him and trying to capture him for almost a month by now.

Ichigo rose his eyes and looked up at the spacecraft of black and elegant metal not stopping ever in its hunting. He could see nothing from the inside, the crystals tinted to protect it from the sun and space travel, but Ichigo still knew who was inside.

The bastard.

Taking another sudden turn, Ichigo went deeper into the forest, up the mountain and closer to the cave system he knew was around the whole place. His boots skidded again over the pine needles on the floor -the only annoying thing in his new life- but Ichigo was used to it and with his body trained and adapted to the mountain, he easily righted himself again and kept on moving.

The spacecraft in the air made an annoyed angry sound as it also curved in its trajectory trying to follow Ichigo’s messy path. It was faster than him, probably loaded with weapons who could destroy the trees and even the mountain, but it had never shot at him. As if the bastard wanted him alive, or as if he didn’t want to damage the place. Whatever the reason, it gave Ichigo a very nice advantage.

And Ichigo always took it.

Seconds later, after zigzagging between trees and doing a few more sharp turns, Ichigo finally saw a rocky wall with one of the caves openings. Without stopping in his race, he entered it abruptly, and heard the deadly machine emit a deep sound as it suddenly tried to stop before collapsing with the mountain. Quickly, never ceasing in its persecution, it started to find a place to land, but it would take it a few minutes.

Ichigo blinked as he slowed his run to a stop and found himself deep into the mountain darkness and its humid cold. His eyes took a few precious minutes to adjust to the darkness, and his breathing even longer to calm after such a run, but half a minute later, he started to explore the little cave to find a place to hide.

Finally finding a good enough place, Ichigo sat against the rocky wall, just behind a boulder, and pulled from his back his most useful possession, a big blanket of the same colour and texture of the rocks of the mountain. Getting himself comfortable, taking his knife and lowering the backpack down in case he needed to get physical, Ichigo put the blanket over himself hiding his presence and waited in the darkness.

As expected, the aircraft finally fell into silence announcing that _somehow,_ it had landed. After that, it only took a moment until a figure entered the cave following his steps.

They were called Arrancars because they had torn at humanity and civilization leaving nothing behind. They however looked strikingly _human._ Two legs, two eyes, and no tentacles or weird appendages as movies had portrayed them in their golder eras. Aliens weren’t ugly, in fact they were the complete opposite, every one of them looked like the models from the old magazines, tall, well looking, with a body made for sin, soft skin and striking eyes.

They were the most handsome creatures Ichigo had ever seen, the peak of evolution, the most skilled predator.

It was said that several humans had become they slaves and pets _willingly_ because of that, that their minds had just broken when looking upon such beauty, and that they had joined their ranks as tamed wolves losing their will to fight. Ichigo himself could understand the compulsion, but unlike those people, he would never forget who they were or the dark truth their pretty appearance hid. Arrancars had been the ones responsible of the fall of humanity. They had spread the virus; they had killed governments and destroyed the cities until humanity could be counted by the thousands instead of millions.

The monster in front of him wasn’t a god-sent creature, it was the devil itself.

The man entered the cave slowly. Careful and cautious. He moved with grace, as if he understood the world in a way no other creature could. His clothes were military black today, a thin tight jacked that sculpted his shoulders and showed mouth-watering abs, and tight black trousers that ran down long and strong legs and ended in boots similar to Ichigo’s ones. The whole design was embroidered with some kind of threat that glowed golden and allowed the jewellery and insignias the creature wore to match the whole look.

But the man himself would make everything look good.

Taller than Ichigo and almost any human man he knew, he was covered in muscle and a golden biteable skin kissed by the sun. His hair was a beautiful shade of blue, messy and tangled, as if he had just woken from bed and a night of passion, his jawline was sharp and deadly, and the little mask of bone all Arrancar wore looked like that of a jaguar, deadly and enticing.

His whole body tempted Ichigo to touch, to caress and pet. To let go and just do as he was told. _To submit_. Still, despite his good looks and appearance, the most striking thing the creature had were the eyes. Made of an electric blue that Ichigo was sure would glow in the dark, every time Ichigo looked at them his body seemed to freeze, his pulse raced, and his whole mind blanked.

They were dangerous eyes. The creature’s weapon.

The man walked deeper into the cave with long and elegant strides, with a confidence that made Ichigo envious. He looked around the place, up at the ceiling of stalactites and ahead at the dead end of the place. He frowned. He touched the wet rock at the end of the place as if checking if it was real, and again looked around pissed.

Ichigo under the blanket contained his breath as his fingers traced the sharp edge of the knife. He had been escaping from this man for a whole fucking month. The man had been the first Arrancar who had found him and had gone through all the trouble of trying to capture him. Ichigo guesses punching him that first time hadn’t been a good decision. They were kind of spiteful.

Still, this chase couldn’t go on for long.

Ichigo’s knowledge about Arrancars was limited since he had never met one before. He had managed to punch this man last time and escape, but he didn’t know if he could pull something like that again. There were stories circling that the few survivors had willingly shared, they spoke of things that were impossible, of strength, powers and even magic.

They spoke of a race superior to humanity in all aspects.

Ichigo won’t be able to fight against such a creature, he didn’t had knowledge enough to do so. He didn’t know what this man was capable off or if the stories were true or not, but he won’t risk anything in believing them. Therefore, the mouse and cat game needed to end before it was too late, and he got captured and enslaved. He had to start planning ahead of time.

The Arrancar looked around again one last time, he circled the small space before, finally, sighting and pulling an object out from his jacket. Ichigo cursed inwardly while recognizing it. Infrared glasses. He was done. This was going to end even sooner than he had predicted.

The man put the glasses on hiding his strange eyes and clicked the power on. Ichigo slowly moved prepared to strike, the boulder in front of him won’t be able to hide him and would become a problem while jumping. He would have to be quick, stab him in the neck, next the heart.

The man looked at the wall at the end of the cave. Up. He lowered his head to the side and finally…

“Sir” a voice called from the entrance of the cave. The Arrancar turned towards the sound and Ichigo waited in tension “Sir, we have a message from Aizen, he wishes to speak with you”

Another Arrancar entered the cave. A younger man, his hair blond, and a strange mask covering his head. he also had weird teeth. He looked at the blue haired Arrancar expectantly from the entrance and the man sighed annoyed, taking off the glasses.

He looked around the cave again pissed, his blue eyes scanning every surface.

“Sir?”

“I’m going!” the first man said angrily, his voice low, rumbling, making Ichigo skin crawl for several different reasons. “Stop being annoying”

The blond Arrancar frowned.

“...I just don’t understand why you keep searching him” He mumbled turning his back to the entrance, starting to walk away “You could have any human slave you wanted. Aizen would be more than happy to provide it”

The blue haired man only watched the blond walk away with that frown on his handsome face and a bit of doubt and worry on his eyes. Ichigo waited, expecting him to leave, the man clearly needed to answer to someone, but instead, the Arrancar’s turned his head in Ichigo’s direction, looking exactly at where he was.

And again, those blue eyes consumed him.

Ichigo's mind stopped working, his breath caught, his whole body seemed to turn cold and warm at the same time. Suddenly he wanted to stand up and follow this man. Suddenly he wanted the other to find him, capture him, do whatever he wanted to him. His body even began to move, his mouth opened...

Ichigo gripped his knife until it hurt, and the metal dug in his palm.

Blinking and looking away from those eyes, Ichigo stopped himself. He didn’t want to go with the monster, he repeated himself. He hated him. His race had eradicated humanity, his home, his family. _He hated them._ He would kill them all. They were demons with pretty eyes and nothing more. They were ugly, bloodthirsty beasts, atrocities of nature.

The monster in front of him sighted, faced the entrance of the cave, and got out.

Minutes later, the aircraft lifted away and into the sky leaving him alone in his cave and in his forest. Still Ichigo didn’t move. He kept trembling until his body ached and his fingers started to bleed from the pressure he was putting on the knife.

 

…oOo…

The aircraft moved among the trees titling this way and that and getting away from the high beautiful mountains and the lush forest. Grimmjow felt uneasy. The machine was big enough to carry more than two people and Di Roy wasn’t exactly a big guy, still Grimmjow felt trapped, chained and in need of freedom. He wanted to go back to the forest and the wilderness and keep hunting the human male.

He had been so close this time, he had even felt the creatures mind pushing against his own, trapped and trying to disobey his commands as it always did. Daring, and strong, and lively. Just a few more minutes and Grimmjow would have had the male between his hands. _Finally._ After a month. After hours of persecution and obsessing over him.

Fucking Aizen.

Still orders were orders, and there were people not even _he_ could disobey. But maybe, it was better this way. This way he could come and play with the human again tomorrow, he could hunt, feel the thrill and desire in his veins as he followed that orange hair among the trees, as they circled one another, as he felt the little body so close to his grasp, and the excitement of another fight.

These little hunts had become the best thing that had happened to him in decades.

It had all begun as an accident. He had been walking among the mountains, needing some time away from the court and among the wild nature of this planet when he had encountered the young man. At first, he had been surprised and a bit confused when finding him there since not a lot of humans remained free after the invasion. Half of the race was dead, and the other half enslaved. Yet here he was, in the middle of nowhere, alive, healthy, cute, and perfectly fine.

Then Grimmjow, of course, had wanted to capture him.

It was in part his duty, he had been ordered to enslave the whole human population, so they could conquer and take advantage of this planet. So, if he was to find a rogue human who had escaped the collecting troops, he needed to capture him and put him with the others on the market. The best way to stop a revolt was to eradicate the revels and slave them, Aizen had said. And Grimmjow would probably be able to sell him for a good price, the man was good looking, healthy and wild, with a pretty and cute face, lean muscles and challenging eyes.

_He hadn’t been ready for him at all._

Expecting the fear and awe he inspired in every human and a few Arrancars, he had found himself in a fight instead as the boy fucking _attacked_ him. They had rolled on the dirty ground, like animals fighting over a piece of meat, they had crashed against trees, scraped with rocks, and the man had ended straddling his hips and banging his head against the ground as if his life depended on it.

Grimmjow was a warrior, one of the most lethal soldiers of the galaxy, feared in every social circle, and yet, he had been so stunned by the whole situation he had even forgotten how to fight.

He was deadly weapon, he knew he could take the boy easily in a combat, his body was stronger than that of a human, forged after years of deadly evolution, while his mind was a weapon capable of enslaving a whole race. Yet he had laid there in wonder. As a pretty, weak human punched him like no one had done in years, with anger, with hate, and with no restrain. It had been wonderful, well, if he ignored the pain and physical abuse, but it had just been a freeing experience.

Grimmjow had felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins, alive and awakening, he had felt the metallic taste of blood on his tongue, a slender body moving above him with the only desire of fighting him as no one had done in years.

It had woken him up like a bath on frozen water.

The boy of course had left him for dead after a while and ran away. Grimmjow however had just laid there, beaten, surprised and weirdly aroused.

Days later the hunt had started, and oh man, it had been fun.

However, after a month, as the big powerful structure that Grimmjow called home appeared in the distance, Grimmjow knew the game was coming to an end. The human’s tricks were getting more stupid, Grimmjow didn’t felt twice in the same trap, and there was a limited number of traps you could pull on a mountain forest. He had been close this time, he had felt the wild human upon his reach, struggling, resisting, but oh, so close. He would capture him eventually, it was fate, the way of the world, he was a patient predator and the other weak and obnoxious prey.

Grimmjow smiled, thinking about how he would tame his new pet once he got him, he thought about those challenging eyes, about that lean body and that strange share of orange hair.

Meanwhile a starship the size of a skyscraper received its commander with eagerness. His home wasn’t especially big compared to other spaceships, but still, it had a crew of a few hundreds and functioned like a city, with rooms, training grounds, and even gardens where they cultivated plants that couldn’t grow on the earth's atmosphere. It wasn’t luxurious, but they didn’t need more. Warriors were used to scarce things.

The metallic gates opened and it welcomed the smallest ship and it’s two passengers. Grimmjow lost his smile. A few of Aizen guards were already waiting for him with new orders and instructions. His little vacation was about to come to an end.

 

…oOo...

Ichigo welded a bit more aluminium thread into the circuit, put it down, took his glasses off, and looked at his creation. The little device was the size of his fist, with a bit compartment where the gunpowder and glycerine mix were hidden, and a few circuits around it that will ignite and explode when it was ready.

Ichigo frowned looking at it. It didn’t look like high-tech for sure.

He has never been god with electronics, years ago when humans ruled, and cities grew, he had been one of those medicine children with a sharp intelligence and an even bigger memory. He had memorized bones, arteries and nerves. Yet, after the apocalypse, a man had to learn a few new things. Useful dangerous things. Creating handmade explosives was apparently one of his new acquired skills.

Shiba would be proud.

Putting the device along with the other twenty one’s explosives he had created, Ichigo stood up and stretched feeling his column and shoulders pop after a day of putting the machines together and sitting in an uncomfortable chair. On the corner of the little room, Shirosaki yawned looking at him, his big teeth showing and a blue tongue poking out before it closed.

Ichigo smiled at him lovingly.

The big white wolf had become one of his best companions in the solitude of exile. He and his little brother, another wolf of black mane that Ichigo had called Mugetsu, seemed to follow Ichigo around and seemed to have adopted him into their small pack. They took care of one another. They hunted together, they bathed together on the lake, and on cold night Ichigo even allowed them all to slept together on the thin mattress of the bed.

Apparently now, they will become terrorist together too.

Putting the exploding devices carefully in one of the backpacks with the help of Mugetsu, Ichigo again searched the afternoon sky for signs of an approaching black aircraft. The Arrancar had been out for hours, leaving him alone but he would eventually come back to hunt him. He always did.

This time, Ichigo would be ready.

Getting out of the small refuge he had built two years ago in the entrance of one of the high caves and right over a precipice, Ichigo called for his companions to go out. The house was small, with just a room with crumpling wooden walls, ceiling and floor. Ichigo had known nothing about working wood back then, but he had also needed to learn. Still, the place was hidden thanks to the trees growing at the bottom of the precipice with its branches reaching the cave, and it allowed Ichigo to escape if he needed it thanks to the caves system. It was safe, guarded, and as comfortable as he had managed to build it.

He had several dens like this around the forest, little huts, half hidden, with little bedrolls and furniture, but undetectable. He himself moved from one to another constantly so he couldn’t be found easily. He carried the important stuff always on his backpack, not daring to leave things anywhere in case he needed to leave them behind, and he had also taught himself to sleep on the floor, survive in nature, and eat what he could find or hunt himself.

It wasn’t a comfortable, stylish and luxurious life, but it was his life now.

Walking through the dark tunnels with a self-made torch, and down the mountain entrails followed by the two wolves, Ichigo made several turns and followed the marks he had left long ago on the walls and caverns. Finally, he exited the caves at the feet of the mountain and walked right into the forest close to where the Arrancar had almost caught him this morning.

Shirosaki rubbed his head against his waist and Ichigo caressed the huge wolf’s head shrinking his fingers in his thick hair. Mugetsu quickly followed his brother also asking for pets and licking his fingers. After indulging them with a few chin rubs and ear massages, Ichigo however got to work.

He selected a small clearing where the threes were young and the plants scarce, and started to dig on the muddy ground. Shiro and Mugetsu quickly joined the game of digging and before long, they had a decent sized hole. Ichigo buried then the device with care, petted the wolves a bit more, and moved to a new location.

Just before noon, all twenty-one devices were buried around the mountain and ready to explode if they noted something big and metallic over them. Like an aircraft.  Ichigo entered one of his favourite huts hidden right next to a small mountain lake and began to make dinner in the electric warmer he always carried. The two wolves observed him work and happily played with one another.

Ichigo silently waited.

 

…oOo…

That night several explosions were heard on the forest waking every living animal who lived in the place. Ichigo smiled evilly. Ichigo 25 -Arrancar 0. This was just too easy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We could say Grimmjow was litteraly "love strucked".


	3. Night

The forest floor felt damp and muddy against his face, it smelled of earth and rain, of living growing things and dirt. Specially dirt. Grimmjow grunted against it feeling nauseated. The explosion had hit him harder than he had expected and the headache, in consequence, was pulsing against his temples with an evil enthusiasm. He tried to sit up, and cringed pathetically when the mud stuck to his face.

He looked around.

The small aircraft he had been flying in was smashed and blown into pieces thanks to the explosion that had taken it from the sky. A few trees around the place were on fire among metallic parts, with the combustible feeding the flames despite the humidity on the mountains. The sound of rushing animals and scared nature surrounded him along with the fire, while the scent of burning combustible, metal and wood filled his nose among the chaos. It was a total loss. Plain and raw destruction.

Grimmjow however was just fine. It took more than a small explosion to kill an Arrancar. His clothes however were half gone. Half his pant had disappeared along with a boot, there was even a piece of metal stuck into the meat of his tight, but with a little pull and another grunt, he dislodged it from the bone and watched the skin heal itself slowly. After a minute, he could move again, no scar left, no dizziness, tiredness, nor certain dead.

He wanted to chuckle.

So, the orange-haired human knew how to build explosives. Well, the man had proved that he knew how to fight, how to survive in wilderness, and he even lived with two wolves, of course he would know how to build a bomb. This was solely his own fault for underestimating a threat.

Still amazed by that fact, Grimmjow grabbed the edge of his jacked and pressed one of the golden electric wires adorning it until it turned from gold to red. The small device would send a sign to the main spaceship and his Fracción would be here to take him home within minutes. So, leaning back on the mud and the pine needles -no point in trying to stay clean now- Grimmjow observed one of the trees burn down slowly as he thought about what had happened.

The attack had been precise. The human had taken into consideration his routines and had used them in a surprise movement against him. It had been a well thought and executed tactic, _brilliant_ , but it also spoke of desperation.

They had pissed each other often thought the month, sure, the boy had punched him that first time, but Grimmjow in revenge might have thrown pine cones at him with chemical substances that stank, the boy might had managed to throw him into a frozen lake, Grimmjow might have attempted to kidnap one of the wolves, there had been races through the forest, insults, threats...but it had all been games. They haven’t tried to harm each other for real.

At least until now.

Grimmjow observed his ship, a destroyed wonder of technology that was going to make him suffer his Fracción’s accusing glares for days. So why had the human done this? Had Grimmjow done something wrong to change their game’s dynamic? Had he broken a sacred human rule or something?

He remembered his last encounter with the human just that morning, and how he had almost had him on his grasp. He remembered their little mind game right at the end, the lust he had incited on the human’s mind, the arousal, the almost surrendering. Grimmjow remembered how he had tried to lure the boy out from his hiding place so he could finally stare into caramel eyes, take him, and claim his victory.

The young man, however had resisted those mind games with a ferocity Grimmjow had rarely seen before.

Maybe _that_ had been the problem? He had scared him more than he should have, or have broken a human taboo. Maybe the young man had panicked and that was the reason he had gone _all out with a fucking bomb._

Grimmjow huffed getting pissed. The human was completely overreacting. Still, it was time to change the approach and try a different tactic, he would have to be subtle, suave, as humans said, he needed a new method to lure the prey into the trap.

Another aircraft appeared in the dark night, and its lights illuminated the forest as they searched for him thought the trees and the pieces of his own aircraft. Grimmjow stood up from the floor dusting off his half pant, and ready to return home, bath, and prepare a new plan.

Then the second aircraft blew up in a ball of flames.

Grimmjow just opened his mouth as he watched the ship collapse with a man from his faction following him into the ground. His man would be fine, they were all Arrancars after all, almost indestructible, the aircraft however...dear god, Shawlong and the others would be _so pissed_ he would never hear the end of it.

For fucks sake, how many bombs were there in the forest?! _How many bombs could an isolated wild human create on his own?_ Two-Three? Where the hell did he even get his supplies from?

As Grimmjow started to hike towards the second accident and it fucking started to rain, he decided to give up on subtlety with the male human. _Fuck. Him_. Eye for an eye had always been his thing. Subtlety and delicacy were for losers. He was going to make the smart human asshole pay for this, he would hunt him, make him kneel, and then he would be the one laughing and enjoying the scene.

 

...oOo…

_Sitting down on the dinner table, Ichigo let his body grow limp in exhaustion. The day had been way too stressful and demanding for a Monday. Medicine degrees always asked for high notes, punctuality, and a handful of extracurricular activities that consumed too much time. Knowing that his widowed father couldn’t support him and his three sisters easily on his own, Ichigo also needed more than an average mark to get the scholarships._

_It was a pain in his ass._

_Yuzu, his dear youngest sister, smiled warmly at him from the other side of the table as she put a plate of dark spiced curry in front of him. Oh, merciful god. The potatoes and carrots almost looked glazed under the thic sauce and the meat seemed tender and perfectly golden against the rice grains. Curry was one of the family’s favourite meals and one of Yuzu’s specialities, his father, next to Ichigo, was already engulfing his own ration down, chewing the vegetables with a blissful expression on his face._

_Yuzu had a gift. She was also one her way to become one of the youngest students to ever enter in the “Cordon Bleu Institute” in Japan. They were all so proud and happy for her._

_Ichigo was taking spoonful of the dark sauce, the scent already making his mouth water, when Karin, his other sister, the sarcastic ball of teenage angst, entered the room and suddenly felt to the ground as if struck by lightning._

_They all froze in surprise, their meals halfway to their mouths and looked at her crumpled body in confusion._

_Then worry kicked in and they all rushed to her side in panic._

_Isshin, a certified doctor and owner of their small clinic, took her pulse with care, the small wrist of her sister looking even smaller between his dad’s huge hands. Then he checked her temperature, her unmoving breath, her pupils… and he paled, and paled as a horrified expression grew on his face._

_“Dad?” Ichigo said, worry colouring his words. He had turned overprotective of his family after his mother’s dead, and now his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. Very wrong._

_Karin at his feet was losing colour. As if something was eating at her, spreading inside her and consuming her little body. Dark black bruises started to appear under her soft pale skin before it cracked, like paper, and black sticky liquid started to drip from her and pool on the floor._

_They all watched terrified._

_“Dad!” Ichigo exclaimed horrified, his voice trembling as the blood continued to drip. He touched Karin, trying to do something, trying to remember what he had learned at the university about the body, about blood and haemorrhage._

_Karen however was deep cold under his careful fingers. Ashen. There was no pulse. No breathe. Nothing._

_“She is dead” his father said with a thin voice, his eyes huge in shock, his hands trembling. “It’s the virus”_

_Yuzu then began to cough next to them, and she kept on coughing till black liquid blood spilled between her small pale fingers, and she felt to the ground as if something had stolen her strength._

_“No” Ichigo said, catching her between his arms and cuddling his dear little sister against his chest protectively “No. It’s been contained! They quarantined the stupid place!”_

_He turned to his dad. Only his old man had also begun to bleed, dark black drops falling from his eyes, from his ears, from his mouth, from little cracks on his black fingers. Yuzu was growing cold between his arms, her colour draining, her body become fragile, as if the black liquid was taking everything away, as if she was turning into ash and dust, disappearing before his eyes._

_“No” Ichigo sobbed, knowing what was happening but not wanting to accept it. Not ready to accept it. “No, no!” he begged._

_“Be strong, Ichigo” his father told him, his body also losing colour, his muscles and nerves melting and making him crumple over his daughter’s ashes “We love you”_

_Ichigo looked away not wanting to see it. Not wanting to see anything more. He cried suddenly alone in the kitchen. He begged for it to be a dream. His mind denying what had happened in barely seconds. He clutched the crumpling body of his sister against his chest and felt it melt away between his fingertips._

_Outside the window a huge metallic ship had appeared over his small town. In the following hours it would bring the apocalypse._

 

Ichigo woke up drenched in sweat and with a terrified scream trapped in his throat. He gasped for air. He curled up in the thin bed feeling his pillow soaked with tears and sweat and nightmares. He was trembling under the thin cover. Violently. It had been long since he had dreamt with his family death. In the first months it had been a recruiting nightmare waking him up in the middle of the night with a panic attack. Now however, after four years, the dreams had faded, and just gave him a bad night every few weeks.

A very bad night.

Searching in the darkness, Ichigo pulled and clicked a small light on. Nothing big, nothing that would be seen through the closed windows or that would attract unwanted attention, but still, luminous and warmth enough that it would calm his terrified imagination.

Shirosaki, sleeping on the floor next to his bed, rose his huge furry head with a sleepy confused expression as the light flickered on. His nostrils flared just once, as if testing the scent in the air and trying to understand why Ichigo was waking him. Then the big wolf froze, stood up, and in the next second, he was all over him. Licking his face, whining, and trying to get into the bed to nuzzle and calm him.

He always did the same. He had always been an overprotective beast.

Ichigo patted his fluffy ears trying to let the huge wolf see he was okay. Meanwhile he tried to calm himself, lower his heart rate, his rapid respiration, and forget the faces of his dead sisters covered in black blood. When Mugetsu, waking up with the ruckus too, managed to climb into the bed and flopped down on top of him, Ichigo gave up.

He let both wolves fuss over him.

The wolves finally climbed on top of him attempting their comforting version of a puppy pile. Ichigo tried not to suffocate under their weight. He didn’t even know if the bed was strong enough to support them all, but he didn’t care. He petted both beasts, he let them lick his fingers and his face, and slowly, he felt himself relax and unwind under their worry.

It has been years since that day. There was nothing he could have done to save them. No cure had ever been discovered for the virus. Feeling regrets for not saying ‘love you too’ back to his father, or feeling guilty for being the sole survivor of his family was useless and stupid.

As he tried to convince himself, Shiro kept licking at his hand as if Ichigo was a scared puppy the wolf needed to calm down. Ichigo slowly relaxed under the treatment, the presence of both wolves making him feel safe and protected, in the middle of another kind of family that loved and protected him just the same. Their heat and soft fur were comfortable, the rhythmic lull of Shiro’s tongue and Mugetsu’s breath were making him sleepy.

After half an hour of pets, and licks, and nuzzles, Ichigo managed to fall asleep again, with no nightmares this time.

 

...oOo…

Grimmjow leaned back on his huge bed, and sighed in peace. He was comfortable now, away from his soldiers, and on his own personal den in loose white pants, he felt fresh after a warm bath, and completely and utterly relaxed.

The room he had chosen as his own wasn’t especially big, but it was wide instead and was situated on the upper level of his spaceship. It had the ceiling and a wall made of pure transparent crystal that allowed him to look deep into the universe and at the planet below him. The floors in contrast were made of a dark polished wood and were covered in deep fluffy rugs that looked way to soft and comfortable for a soldier like him. There were weird plants he had found all over the galaxy climbing the remaining walls, cushions and sofas on the corners, and on the few shelves adorning the remaining space, books, and scrolls, and mechanical devices filled the space. All the furniture was minimalistic and in cream, white hues, that pleased the eye. Calming, relaxing.

His den.

Yet, right now, as he stared into the crystal window and at the hologram of a planet projected into the glass of his ceiling, Grimmjow didn’t feel calm at all. He never did when he regarded the visual of their own old planet.

History said that Hueco Mundo had once been a beautiful place, full of life, wonders, abundance and peace. Arrancars had been a pacific civilization back then, kind and unconscious like humanity now was, however, as their red star slowly died and consumed itself, it had turned their planet into an arid desert, and their civilization into deadly dangerous monsters trying to survive. Their ecosystem had turned so violent that Arrancars were the only things living in the planet anymore. Monsters not even their small dying planet had been able to contain.

Grimmjow rose his hand to the image of his planet and shipped it left making the huge image change, and a new planet’s hologram appear to illuminate his bedroom. Vivid blue, emerald green, creamy peaks, white frozen ice. A kaleidoscope of colours that made his eyes hurt, and his whitish room turn into a painting full of pigments and hues.

Human’s Earth was a thing of beauty.

Grimmjow had explored this new planet with a sense of wonder and jealousy. He had looked down at the huge desert of Gobi heated and bared of life thanks to the sun. He had walked among jungles where he had met the wild panthers and fought their sharp claws. He had swum in so much water that he had been able to dive. He had seen the sky light up in the north with green lights, and the sun disappear behind tall, foggy mounting in a spectacle of oranges and pinks.

And it had called to a part of his soul in a way no other planet had ever done. It had felt like he had finally found the place he belonged, the place he was meant to live in.

His real home.

The warm sun had felt way to nice against his skin, it didn’t burn nor bruise him like the sun at home had. The water was fresh and unpolluted, almost sweet as it pooled in oceans and lakes so big, he couldn’t see the other edge. The wind smelled of flowers, of rain and a hundred marvellous things. There were a hundred creature to learn about. There were wonders he wanted to see...

However, they were destroying the planet. Aizen hadn’t been subtle or secretive with his plans. Humanity had fallen first. The planet will come later. It was what they did, what they have become. Destruction and pain, evolution at its peak.

Grimmjow again swiped at the hologram with a tense hand and the holographic image of the Earth disappeared to be substituted by the outside night sky and the huge white moon in the middle of it. Grimmjow sat on his bed. Frowning, because he knew was getting depressive. Not his thing. He was more used to ignoring a problem until it disappeared, rather than wondering and worrying about it.

Soldiers obeyed; they didn’t judge.

So instead he picked a book from the pile next to his bed. A human book, a human _cooking_ book,a nd opened it intent on distracting himself from dark thoughts.

Thanks to his new orange-haired obsession living in the mountains, he had spent the last two weeks studying all he could find about humans. He had slowly learned how they lived, their needs, their likes, everything he have been able to find. It had been weird sometimes. Humans seemed to be obsessed with mating-videos if ‘the internet’ was any clue. Cats too, but that was understandable, Grimmjow had liked the Panthers from the jungle too. Social media however, had been way too weird for him, he hadn’t been able to understand Instagram at all.

Still, he had studied all he could so he would be ready for when he captured the human male. He didn’t want the male to die whitin days because he had neglected his care. He liked to take care of his things, his spaceship was perfection, his Fraction respected him and had no reason for betrayal, the plants in his room were watered, and even his new Panther pet had allowed him to scratch his ears yesterday.

He would take care of this new slave too.

He knew however, that caring for one’s slave was odd. Slaves weren’t supposed to be like plants of soldiers, you didn’t take care of them, they were supposed to take care of you.

Grimmjow nevertheless had always broken society rules when regarding this human. First in the useless persecution thought the mountains that he could have ended within days, then with the research, and now with the way he was obsessing every second of the day with him. He kept thinking of stupid plans to go hunt him, he daydreamed about the moment he would have him, he remembered the soft tender lips smirking at him though the forest as he was thrown into a freezing lake, a little body moving above him as he was punched, his laught as he played with wolves, his voice...At the beginning it had been just fun, curiosity, for this one brave human who dared attack him, now however things had gotten more complicated. Now he wanted to have him so fucking much he got pissed the day he couldn’t go out to hunt him.

And that was the problem wasn’t it? Arrancars were not supposed to care for their slaves, even less obsess about them. If they wanted to fuck them, they turned them into sex slaves and had their fun. If the slave got hurt and died, they bought another. If they pissed them, they were executed. It was life. Things like feeding, breeding, or accommodation were unimportant for an Arrancar, and they should be even less important for Grimmjow, one of the ten commanders, and leader of their culture.

Grimmjow however, _ignored the problem as he was fond of doing._

He flipped a page of the book on his hands, and read the title of the recipe in a language he had learned just yesterday. He was intent on learning how to make human food to feed the slave, but Italian food, on one hand, was weird. The recipe he had in front of him was two page long, overcomplicated, and the picture attached to the recipe looked mildly disgusting.

‘Lasagne’ it read in stilled letters. Well, more like regurgitated bloody vomit he would say.

The recipe said that there were videos on the internet explaining how to build the dish. So Grimmjow lighted up his holographic window again and entered on the human internet searching for said video. There were indeed several videos on how to make lasagne. Millions to be more exact, some with or without milk, others a version for the human herbivores... it all made Grimmjow raise an eyebrow in amazement.

He looked at the picture on the book again and curled a lip in disgust. Really? Would the boy like this one? Would he eat the vomit?

He was clicking on the first video when a knock sounded on his door.

“Come in” he said as an old looking lady started to cut a thing called onion way to happily and way to skilfully.

“My lord” Shawlong said upon entering. He looked at Grimmjow and his disgusted face, and then at the lady in the video who kept on talking and talking. He said nothing. “The first guest had arrived”

“Ulquiorra?”

“Cirruci”

Grimmjow clicked his tongue in disgust and looked at his fraction and second in hand. “You better put that one away from me. Know what? put _all of them_ away from me”

“It’s been taken care off, Sir” Shawlong assured him with a bow “Ulquiorra would arrive within a week, the others however would take up to a month. Stark and Halibell would arrive last since they were at home with Aizen”

Grimmjow absently nodded as the happy talkative Granma minced a perfectly good-looking steak and mixed it with other disgusting things. It should be a crime. Yet she showed Grimmjow the disgusting regurgitated mix as if it was something to be proud of.

“Cirruci had requested to have meeting with you, my lord. She claims she wants to thank your hospitality” Shawlong finally said.

Grimmjow looked at his man and chucked amused. That one was new. Hypocrisy was raising to new heights among the Espada. Shawlong coughed.

“Aizen would appreciate if his Espada got along, my lord”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes annoyed. Why did he had to put up with this bullshit? He hated this kind of meeting; he hated this kind of orders and useless encounters. He hated it even more if _he_ was the one supposed to host them all and take care of the others. But he was chained. He was as defenceless against Aizen, as the humans had been against the Arrancar’s. He wasn’t the apex predator in the Galaxy yet.  

“Tomorrow afternoon” he finally conceded, sacrificing for the better good.

This time however it was Shawlong time to raise an eyebrow.

“Are you going to do something in the morning, my lord?”

Grimmjow stared ahead at the video of the old lady. His face one of utter innocence and good behaviour. Shawlong sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. His black styled hair and his well-cut clothes turning him into a more classical and mature beauty for an Arrancar.

“Four aircrafts” Shawlong reminded him with a pissed tense voice “We lost _four very expensive aircrafts_ thanks to your games with that human, Grimmjow. This stupid hunt has to end!”

Oh dear, he was using his first name. That was bad. That mean he was going to torture Grimmjow with ‘Espada Duties’ for a week. Sleek asshole. Still he was the best second hand Grimmjow had ever had.

“I promise it will end soon enough” he assured his old friend, smiling at him with that smile that had seen planets destroyed and civilizations burn.

The old Arrancar however only looked at him as if Grimmjow was the stupidest idiot o the ship, and turned away threatening him about destroying more things. Grimmjow just ignored his man and focused instead on the granny taking the vomit thing out of the heating machine and placing it in a table with a happy smile.

He snarled again.

Maybe he should do the herbivorous version. He wasn’t sure if he could do all that without vomiting himself.

 

...oOo…

Ichigo took off his clothes, folded them neatly, and placed them on top of a rock. Then he turned to look at the small mountain lake in the middle of the forest.

The water was a clear blue, vivid like the sky at midday, but it was small, Ichigo knew that on the deepest parts the cool water would barely reach his waist. He could swim a bit but not too much, he could enjoy the waterfall on one of the borders and knew that no unseen current would try to drown him.

He loved the place.

Right now, at mid-morning, the sun shone directly over the water warming it along the rocks on its shore where his two wolves were sprayed shamelessly in. The pines and little brushes that grew next to the river glowed green and provided intimacy, a few berries and small flowers were even trying to sprout before the real cold would come in.

Ichigo took a step inside the lake, and gritted his teeth. Fuck, as cold as ever. He knew he could take water inside the little hut and warm it with the fire and some heated rocks, but that would take time and effort, and directly bathing in the cold water just took a few minutes. He wanted to go scavenge the pieces from the aircrafts that had blown up yesterday’s night, so he needed the time, and so, cold water it was.

He took another step and then another until the water rose up his calves and then his knees. He knew this was the worst part. Then his body would get used to the temperature and he would be fine. He had survived winters; this was nothing compared to that.

When he reached the waterfall, his body felt a bit numb, but the cold had partially subsided thanks to the sun. Taking a last breath, he pulled his head under the falling water, and cursed. It was at times like this where he missed his old shower.

Knowing that the quickest the better, he took the small cloth he had taken with him, and started to scrub himself clan. No soap, no shampoo nor conditioner. Living in the wild didn’t allow for such luxuries. Ichigo knew how to make soap. It was one of the first things he had learned in the wilderness, but it took time, stank, and could attract unwanted people. His last bar of soap had also been thoughtfully munched by Mugetsu.

So, he lived like a caveman now.

When he was finally done, he turned towards his dear wolves ready to get out of the cold, and sprawl with them in the heated rocks, but froze.

Right there, in the border of the lake, completely unnoticed by his snoring guard wolves, was the blue haired Arrancar. He had his arms crossed in a military posture, with his legs slightly spread and ready for an attack. He wore black on black like yesterday, deadly, predatorily, and fucking sexy and unfair on him.

He was also smirking with a victorious look on his face as he observed a completely _naked_ Ichigo freeze in the water.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter was a bit slow, but I wanted to introduce a bit of Grimmjow's pov and history, next one will be a bit more...exciting. Was it to soon for the bit of drama and cliffhangers?


	4. Threat

For a slow, long moment, Ichigo didn’t know how to react and he stood there, naked and cold in the middle of the pond, regarding the blue-haired male surprised. The idea that the Arrancar would be able to find him so easily and in such a compromising situation had never crossed his mind, and therefore, he just stared at the man without understanding how he was even there.

Hadn’t he died yesterday with the explosion? How the hell had he survived? and found him? Why were his two wolves sleeping peacefully without attacking the asshole? Should he run? Then, his mind finally started working again and it helpfully reminded him that he was _totally naked_ and in front of an enemy.

His face heated up several degrees.

Embarrassed, Ichigo tried to angle his body away from the man’s blue amused eyes, cover himself a bit, but he knew by the smirk in the other’s face that it was already too late. He had flashed his enemy and probably put on a show while bathing for the man’s entertainment.

Fucking awesome. He had to be the unluckiest man still on earth.

Apart from his exhibitionist show, Ichigo was utterly trapped and they both knew it. Water allowed no mobility in a fight so he would have a disadvantage if he fought the man on shore, there was only one way out of the small lake and it was where the Arrancar and his wolves were, and apart from that  he was weaponless, cold, surprised, and again _naked_.

He frowned at that last part. Was he really under such a disadvantage?

Lowering his fingers under the water, he touched the knife he always had strapped to his tight for situations like this one. Always carrying a weapon was rule number one while surviving, he slept with a gun under his pillow, he hunted with the bow, and he bathed with a knife. The fact would have been worrying four years ago, paranoid and creepy, but now, right in the middle of the apocalypse, it made Ichigo want to smile.

He didn’t do it thought, he had an advantage he could use against his enemy and he needed to keep it hidden. 

The stupid asshole kept on leering at him as if this was the best thing that had happened to him in his life. Ichigo gave up on hiding and planning, and instead he just glared at the pervert. They seized each other up for a moment, two predators regarding the other and wondering about the best way to attack.

After a moment, the Arrancar stopped smirking, shrugged as if he didn’t care about Ichigo’s glare, and he _fucking began to undress._

The man threw his shirt away and leaned back revealing the powerful curve of his pectorals, his sculpted abs and a happy trail of blue hair that suggestively disappeared under his black pants. Physically speaking, the Arrancar was the perfect image of one of those Greek gods adored in the past, powerful, handsome, and perfect. Ichigo was sure that had the man been human, more than a few females would have worshiped him as a god indeed.   

The Arrancar kept on undressing under his stare.

Surprised and mildly alarmed, Ichigo noticed every elegant and lethal move the other male did. The slow swing of his hips as he balanced on one foot, or the skill of those fingers as they undid his belt. The Arrancar continued taking off his black boots and black shocks revealing elegant calves, the two guns followed after a moment, then the sharp looking blade.

Suddenly, the blue haired psychopath rose his face and met Ichigo’s hot gaze smugly, as if he knew perfectly well what Ichigo was thinking or what his focused eyes meant. With a slow teasing motion and still looking at him death in the eyes in that challenging way of his, he took his hands off his pants and finally let them fall.

Ichigo looked away, his face more than hot and his hearth rate a bit accelerated.

He heard the man chuckle on the shore, and he tightened his fist under the water feeling frustrated with himself for having that kind of thoughts about his enemy. _His enemy._ The one he tried to kill just yesterday. The ones who had enslaved humanity.

Trying to keep his sanity and the last remnants of his pride, he tried not to look back at the naked wonder in front of him even though he knew that taking his eyes away from an enemy was a dangerous thing to do. He would keep his last sanity and freedom no matter what temptation was in front of him.

His attempt at not looking however didn’t last long, as he heard the other splashing on the water and raised his eyes to see what the hell was the other doing.

Waist deep into the lake already, the Arrancar was swimming towards him as if it was the most normal thing to do. Ichigo blinked. What was he playing at? _What the hell was he doing?!_

Ichigo faced him in a defensive position trying to hide his only weapon under the water and his nudity at the same time. Ready to fight to dead if it was needed, of run for freedom once more. The Arrancar however just stopped a few steps away from him in the middle of lake. Naked, with his skin shining under the sun with little drops of water, and all unfairly gorgeous.

Ichigo wanted to punch his perfect smirking face.

“What are you doing here?” he hissed without moving an inch, his fingers caressing the knife and his eyes glaring at the man while not daring to go below waist level.

The monster lowered his head to the side in a catlike gesture as he regarded him. His face bored and uncaring, as if they hadn’t been hunting each other for a month “I’m just taking a bath”

_Obviously, he was not._

“Is this a joke to you?” Ichigo couldn’t help saying, his voice raising in indignance amount the trees and sounds of nature.

On the shore, Mugetsu suddenly rose his head alarmed and looked at him and the new person among them. Instantly he started to growl, as if he had noticed the Arrancar for the first time just now. It was useless now. But still Ichigo hearth warmed as he saw beast paddled to the water to growl to the Arrancar better.

In front of him the Arrancar didn’t seem to notice neither of this and instead his nonchalant attitude disappeared to be replaced with the serious intent one that spoke of danger and screams.

“No” he said after a moment “It’s no joke to me either”

His blue, hypnotic eyes travelled suddenly over Ichigo. Something dark and dangerous shining in their intensity, something that made Ichigo’s stomach tightened, his heart skip a beat and his whole-body shudder in sudden awareness.

For the first time in years, Ichigo couldn’t help but feel self-conscious under that stare. He again felt his face heathen up, and again he couldn’t help but look away in frustrated shame.

He hadn’t seen himself in a mirror for months, but he knew he shouldn’t look enticing. Living in the wild had made him lose weight, and although he had more muscles than when he was young, they were not as impressive as the Arrancar’s biteable ones. He was _skinny_ , covered in scars after these four years of survival, and burned by the mountain sun. Even his colouring was plain, with brown ugly eyes, and an orange hair he didn’t want to think about because last time he had cut it, it had been with a fucking knife and no mirror. He was nothing compared to the handsome beauty in front of him, no matter what the man’s dark looks implied. It was a lie, a manipulation to get to him.

He frowned trying to don’t feel hurt. It didn't matter. Beauty didn’t matter anymore, now he just needed to survive.

Stepping to the side, Ichigo tried to circle the Arrancar in a subtle way. Maybe if he was quick, he could outrun him, he was a good swimmer after all, and they were both in the water now and weaponless. They moved on equal ground, and Ichigo knew the terrain because he had bathed here several times, if he played it right, he might be able to escape again.

The Arrancar however, moved with him easily reading his thoughts and preventing him to escape or put any kind of distance between them. Ichigo tried to step back and get into attacking range, but suddenly, _he couldn’t move_.

Raising his eyes in panic, he observed the Arrancar close the distance between them with slow uncaring steps, and stop way to close to him among the cold water. Ichigo’s body stiffened as a warm hand cupped his cheek delicately, and a rough teasing thumb caressed his bottom lip and the blush still on his skin with leisurely attention.

Panic rose, his hearth beat in alarm in his chest, and still…he couldn’t move. He fought the compulsion to stay still, he fought the force immobilizing him, his arms trembled with the effort, but it served for nothing. He was paralyzed. The Arrancar had managed to trap him in some way.

“It pissses me off how you keep running away from me day after day” the Arrancar said still caressing his cheek and his lips with a disturbing intensity, his voice rough, almost hoarse as it mumbled the words so close to him “Is useless and time consuming. I will win eventually and we both knew it. Surrender already”

He rose Ichigo’s face up in a sharp movement, until their breaths mingled together and just a small movement would close the distance between them. His pale fingers moved to trace the orange spikes of his hair, as if wondering about the texture or the colour, his body moved even closer, almost touching, and finally, he rose his eyes from Ichigo’s lips to meet brown eyes.

Blue consumed Ichigo.

A blue as pure as the skies in summer, like the sea in a storm, or the light of a dying star. A blue so powerful that it took control of his mind and made his thoughts turn slow and calm. His fear and alarm evaporated into thin smoke, leaving him relaxed and pliant under the Arrancar’s hands. His blue eyes were so pretty, electric blue with a darker ring around them that made the blue stand up even more, they looked dark and hungry, and absolutely focused on him.

“You want it too” the man tempted against his mouth, smirking evilly, his thumb again pressing against his bottom lip and willing him to open his mouth and have a little taste.

Ichigo sighted in wonder. He felt his body move on his own and without his consent. His arm began to rise as if to curl around the male’s neck, his back arched as if wanting to reach the taller male and press him flush against his naked skin.

It would feel so good to let go. To allow this handsome creature to claim him. It would be so good to be with another rational being again after so long, to have a conversation, to touch and pet someone who wanted him to.

The hand in his face tilted his head back even more and his lips ghosted over one another. The Arrancar however was letting him take the last step, allowing Ichigo to surrender this last time, and close the little distance. He smelled so good, he felt so good, big and warm and safe around him. Ichigo was so fucking hard. He closed his eyes needing this to happen, needing this male over him.

And the spell broke.

Ichigo launched himself at the man with the knife on his hand and a snarl on his mouth. The Arrancar pulled back dodging the knife directed to his throat and stepped back on the cold water getting away of Ichigo’s range.

A wild amused smile was playing over his cruel mouth and he seemed to want to start laughing, like a cat who had almost got the cream.

Ichigo was murdering him.

“Do you always bathe with a knife?” the Arrancar asked, pulling even farther away as Ichigo made an attempt to follow him.

“Yes, so I can defend from perverts like you”

“Aw, you worry about me so much” he answered easily “Cute”

Ichigo wondered if throwing the asshole the knife was worth losing his only weapon. He took a breath and decided to ignore the man instead. Getting in a fight was stupid, he couldn’t win against such an opponent. He needed to be rational.

And he won’t lower himself to his perverted level. He was done with the bullshit, stupid games and mind control.

Circling around the man with the knife held between them both in a warning, and not even looking in his direction, Ichigo stomped towards the shore. The Arrancar followed him slowly through the water but he didn’t attempt anything, as if he was perfectly happy with the development of the situation. As if this was another of his games, and he knew he could hunt him whenever he wanted. 

It made Ichigo’s blood boil even more.

He reached the shore where Mugetsu and a recently awaken Shiro kept on snarling, and got out without a second thought.

Immediately an appreciative whistle sounded among the trees.

Ichigo couldn’t help it. He got down, picked the biggest stone within reach and threw it at the swimming bastard. The asshole dodged it. Sadly. And to further humiliate him, he rose an eyebrow as his blue eyes travelled down Ichigo’s exposed body and stopped between his legs.

A satisfied smile curved his lips.

Turning away redder than a fucking tomato, Ichigo dressed quickly ignoring the laughing Arrancar on the water, his two snarling wolves, and all the fucking universe. When he was done with all of this. He just walked into the forest intent on forgetting everything that had happened today.

 

...oOo...

Grimmjow entered the hall decided on not letting anything mess with his good humour and high spirits. Today had been a good day, _a very good day_. He had negotiated with the human man for the first time since they met, and had caught him completely off guard as he bathed, he had touched, mocked and almost kissed him. Grimmjow chuckled just at remembering it. That might teach the bastard a few lessons about messing with him.

Today had been one of the best days he had had in a long time, and therefore, he was intent on keeping it that way. The sight that received him on the main hall of his ship, however made it kind of difficult to keep the good humour.

Grimmjow spaceship was not a big ship. With a few training grounds, working offices, and weapons vaults, it hosted about fifty of his subordinates with their families and living quarters. There were no slaves. No kitchen either since Arrancar didn't’ need to eat. There were gardens, a common room, and the control chambers, but that was all. Nothing else and nothing more. Simple and practical.

Nevertheless, what the ship lacked in size, it compensated with beauty. Grimmjow’s ship was the most breath-taking among all the warships of the Espada, and he had taken a special care when building it. The ship was totally made of natural materials like crystal, rock or wood, and full soft looking lines that merged with the landscape outside the windows and invited to relax, and enjoy nature.

That beauty also applied to the huge hall designed to host meetings and reunions with the other Espada and his superiors. The hall was the biggest room on the ship, and was intended to host several hundred people on war meetings, discussions and even parties if it was needed.

Right now, however, the place was mostly emptied out. Grimmjow’s subordinates had taken out a few tables and laid them against the huge glass window right next to the ivy climbing the wall, a few caramel sofas had been arranged in a circle around them, and glasses had been filled up with the human wine that tasted so bad but felt so good.

It would have been a pleasant setting, the landscape, the solitude, the relaxing atmosphere… if it hadn’t been for the slaves.

Almost a dozen humans, male and females, handsome and in different state of undress, circled a woman sitting in the midst. Cirucci laughed among them, her purple eyes decorated with black paint to look more enticing, her violet hair styled back to reveal a long neck and the curve of her full breast, and the short white dress she was wearing riding up her tights not so innocently.

The slaves were unable to look away from her, every one of them had their eyes glued to the pretty Espada sitting like a goddess on a sofa as if she was the owner of Grimmjow’s ship.  

Grimmjow frowned disgusted.

Even he could see how the humans’ minds had been broken and slaved by her powerful one to act like her pets. The groups of undressed slaves did whatever she told them, and they would kill each other, fuck, or humiliate themselves at her command, their minds no longer belonging to them, but to Cirruci. It was the ultimate form of control, servitude and slavery. It was a thing that people like Cirruci, Aizen and the other Espada used to claim they were the superior specie. Nature had provided them with the tools to rule, and therefore they should do it.

Grimmjow hated it all. He had nothing against slaves. It was a rule of nature. The strong controlled the weak. He had also seen the good side of the deal, how humans could get protection, and how the owners could get help and understanding in the deal. It could be done right. It could be a good thing. It was what he intended to do with the human male he hunt.

Cirucci, and most of the other owners however did the opposite of that.

The striking beauty in front of Grimmjow, his collage and his equal, had a twisted and perverted idea of slavery. Cirruci was the owner of the biggest population of human slaves in the galaxy and she kept getting more and more each day. Grimmjow had heard the stories of the orgies, of the breeding facilities, the fights to death, and other perversion that happened in the woman’s ship.

Cirucci didn’t treat slaves as living beings, but she treated them like toys, like puppets she could use to entertain herself and her friends and then throw away. It made him sick. It made him want to throw her away of his ship and clean the whole place from her ugliness.

Still, Grimmjow approached her and her group of pretty pets trying to be civic and the leader his people needed. Easily, he sat in one of the sofas in front of the female Arrancar feeling his blood dangerously cold in his veins.

He ignored the female human who was humming appreciatively as Cirucci painfully squeezed one of her huge breasts, he ignored the males on the floor looking adoringly at the smirking Arrancar trying to caress her exposed tights, or the pair almost humping one another in one of the sofas as they regarded him.

He focused on an enemy instead. 

“What you wanted to talk about?” he asked dryly, not wanting to prolong this more than necessary.

Cirucci smiled at him playfully. She pinched the woman’s nipple between her fingers with strength and the girl moaned against her body despite the pain she should be feeling. Grimmjow just glared at the other without reacting, making her chuckle.

“Oh, Grimmjow, you are such a killjoy” she purred, her looks, her dress, even the way she tilted her head had been studied to make her look enticing, tempting. A predator like him. “I have never understood your dislike of slaves”

 _“What do you want, Cirruci?”_ he repeated. 

His own soldiers on the room were looking uncomfortable, Di Roy sent him a nervous glance, as if he wanted to escape the place before Grimmjow exploded. He wanted to roll his eyes. Cirucci in front of him however only smiled brighter at his attitude, a dark edge appearing on her purple eyes. She releases the tortured girl and leaned forward conspiratorial. The cut of her dress moving with her almost exposing the lush curve of her nipple. Every human in the room followed the movement with a lustful sight, every eye focused on her chest.

Grimmjow however didn’t move, didn’t react again. Cirucci was appealing, pretty, but he knew the monster that hid behind. It held no charm for him. It never would no matter how much the woman tried to lure him. He was not so easy to manipulate.

“I have heard a pretty interesting rumour, you see” Cirruci continued, her voice turning pissed at his lack of reaction but still whispering seductively and leaning even more forward to reveal more skin “They say you have been hunting a human boy, for a month!”

She laughed. A few of her slaves followed her, their minds obeying her very wish. Grimmjow however didn't laugh, he just turned his head and glared at his soldiers who had turned pale. Fuck, he would need to discipline them latter. They should know better than this.  

Cirucci in front of him gasped with fake surprise on her eyes.

“It is true!” she said raising a manicured little hand to her mouth “Oh dear, really? For a month? Are you getting old perhaps? Maybe you do need to retire dear, you have been serving us for _so long_ ”

And there it was. The polite threat he hated so much. The constant clash and fight for more power. The political scheming. Hypocrisy.

He rose from the sofa determined to leave. He would not play such games. If the female wanted to fight, she knew where to find him. Grimmjow fought with fist and blood and pain, not sarcastic smiles and hidden threats.

Cirucci looked at him sadly as he rose, worry suddenly appearing on her pretty eyes.

“Oh, I didn’t intend to offend you, Grimm, I’m sorry” she continued falsely “I can help you if you wish, you know I’m pretty good with slaves” she offered.

Grimmjow froze.

His mind supplied him with the image in a second.

The human boy as one of the males surrounding Cirucci, half naked, with his caramel chest raising in hard pants and his legs opening invitingly. Looking at him adoringly, allowing Grimmjow to do as he pleased with him, moaning when he wanted, kneeling at his feet... And with his mind destroyed, the rebellious fire burned out, and his memory completely and utterly dead to never again play more games among trees.

Something dark he hadn’t felt since he walked the deserted dunes of Hueco Mundo stirred inside him.

For a moment, he let the darkness came out making everyone in the room freeze in terror. For a moment he daydreamed about turning, taking the annoying woman between his hands and crushing her with his bare fingers. He knew he could do it with no consequence. It was their society and their rules.

He could enslave the mind of everyone on this spaceship like Cirucci had enslaved her humans, and it would be fine. He would have the woman begging at his feet, her mind broken, her arrogance destroyed as she undressed and begged at him to be fucked and killed.

But then the moment passed. And he breathed.

Today had been a good day. He had seen naked skin and a perfect round and plump ass. He had smelled nature and freedom on the man’s skin, he had felt the warmth, the passion, and desire. He would allow no one to mess with his good humour and such memories.

Grimmjow walked out of the room without saying anything to anyone. Without seeing the pissed and raged look on Cirucci’s eyes, and how her slaves began to cry in horror.

...oOo...

Ichigo pulled up the metallic carapace and leaned down to inspect the dark space under it. Blue translucent wires, rumbling engines and the electric bones of the spaceships that had crashed just yesterday received him and made him sight annoyed. Arrancar technology was very different than human one, and here there were too many components and materials he had never seen before.

Before humanity had fallen, he had been a medicine student. He had known about cells and bones, about how a human body worked and lived, but had known almost nothing about technology. He had known how to connect a printer, how change a hard disk, or the way to punch his TV back into working. But nothing more. Consequently, years later and facing a fucking alien spaceship who had crashed into a forest, he was a bit lost.

Ichigo studied the mess of metal and little lights, critically.

There were a few spinning motors that would probably be useful for…something. There were electric wires, and several batteries that could light up his hidden refugees and offer some comfort, but he didn’t know how to work with them. He frowned. It was mildly disturbing that he knew how to create bombs, but had no clue on how to light up his house.

Survival took the worst things out of a man.

After a moment of strategical thinking, he decided to go for the metal. Heating, melting and shaping it was easier and would provide more useful things, like cups to boil food, _knives to assassinate a certain Arrancar,_ and nails to build and improve his refuges. He would take the motors too, and a few of the wires and batteries just in case he was lucky experimenting with them, and a miracle happened.

He threw the heavy weight of the biggest battery he could see over his shoulder, and heard Mugetsu grunt as it hit the forest ground. Ichigo ignored him. The two wolves had been acting weird since this morning after their encounter with the Arrancar. Hell, he too was acting weird, but that might be thanks to the trauma he was trying to repress in his mind. He was not going to think about that moment. If someone asked, that _thing_ had not happened.

He pulled a few more wires out of the machine using some strength and threw them at his wolves’ paws waiting for another pissed and annoyed grunt.

It never came.

Frowning, Ichigo turned to look at the beasts that had become his new family and friends. He had been angry and broody all day, and maybe his behaviour had rubbed into the pack mood, but Ichigo knew the two wolves, and they would still follow him around no matter what.

However, as he turned no of them was behind him in the little circle of burning trees the spaceship had created when falling. Ichigo frowned. He got down from the spaceship he had climbed into and started looking around.

“Shiro?” he called to the suddenly silent forest “Mugetsu?”

The fist struck the back of his head with a deadly precision. His body crumpled to the ground as if his strength had been disconnected. His mind panicked, but it was already too late. The last thing he noticed before his mind blanked into unconsciousness was a pair of high-heels approaching him. They were covered in dark fresh blood.

He cursed.

 _They had caught him_.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's say Arrancar don't take well on losing. Ichigo wouldd need to teach them. I am sorry for over-sexualizing Cirruci, but well, everyone is oversexualized in this fic and this is bleach, so there is that. Please don't kill me yet, I have to finish this. 
> 
> Thanks a lot for the comments and the suport guys, love you~


	5. Losing

 

Grimmjow drew back, angled his hips, and threw a powerful kick to Yylfordt’s head. The blond lean male barely dodged the assault making air currents curling between them both as they moved, but still, with his balance obviously off, the younger Arrancar tried to punch Grimmjow’s face with a clenched fist.

Big mistake. 

Grimmjow grabbed the other's fist easily, Yylfordt movements being too slow and uncoordinated compared to his, and the man also being tired after several hours of training for him to react properly. Grimmjow pulled the blond male forward by his fist making him lose what remained of his balance, and then, smirking like a maniac, he threw his blond captain against one of the walls of the training facility. 

The room and floor shake with the hard impact, and Yylfordt squirmed on the ground finally unable to stand up.

The few other soldiers in the room clapped scared and impressed, and looked at Yylfordt as if concerned for him. Grimmjow ignored them and the tense atmosphere. He was pulverizing their captain now, but their turn would come later. He instead approached the crumpled blond on the ground who was breathing fast and probably trying to heal some big internal damage, like a broken rib or a smashed ego. 

“You are angry,” the blond man said through clenched teeth as he watched his general come near and sit by his side and against the now bumped wall. 

Grimmjow grunted at his man “No shit.”

Yylfordt rolled his eyes and tried to sit with a pained expression on his face. “I told you they are sorry. They are ordinary soldiers, Grimmjow, they couldn’t do much against an Espada and you know it. This isn’t fair. They didn’t spill your secrets; they were forced to confess them” 

Grimmjow glared at the blond “That’s why I fucking told you all to _don’t go near her_!” 

“She sought us out!” the blond complained annoyed “You are just taking your anger out on us. They don’t deserve this stupid punishment. _I_ don’t deserve this torture” 

“I’m not taking my anger in you. I’m not angry,” Grimmjow said with a shrug. “You are just a whining bitch.” 

Yylfordt turned to look at him with a twitch in his eyes, and a sudden forced smile on his lips.  “Want to play with the knives and repeat that after?” 

Ah, his ego. Grimmjow smirked back knowing the man’s intentions. Yylfordt was the best fighter among his Fracción when knives were involved. He knew how to use all types of them, from small to the largest ones that could cut down trees, but his favorite one had always been a throwing glaive that resembled the horns of a bull. When he used that one, even Grimmjow had to be careful not to lose the combat. 

“We can play with any weapon you want, but it won’t change the result. I will keep on cleaning the floor with your sorry ass” 

“Oh really? Why don’t we see to that?” 

Grimmjow instantly stood up smiling and ready for another deadly fight, the anger and his problems forgotten for just a moment thanks to the little banter. 

He loved to train his soldiers, even more if it was his Fracción. Grimmjow had fought in a lot of wars, and faced a lot of combats against very different people, but training always felt different from those situations. In training, there was no pressure, no epic battle between life and death, no blood, pain or screams. Training was relaxing, without the numbing intensity. It was just two warriors comparing skills, and getting physical with no consequences. 

With his Fracción, they all also made each other stronger with the clashes. Each one of his captains had specialized on a different aspect of battle, like Yylfordt with his knives, and Grimmjow had needed to learn several very different skill skills in order to face and command them all. 

He wouldn’t be the same man without them. 

His Fracción also seemed to share his way of thinking, and as they both walked to the center of the room and readied themselves before watchful eyes, Grimmjow noticed how Yylfordt also looked more relaxed and at ease after their small session, as if he too had needed to punch his problems into someone. 

Then the blond asshole took out the stupid knife with a crazed look on his eyes. 

Grimmjow tried to focus so he won’t get killed by his now enthusiastic captain. He pulled out one of the small knives he always carried with him inside his boot just in case. The little thing looked pathetic and fragile compared to Yylfordt’s huge ass weapon, and so, the blond man smiled mockingly at him as he balanced the twin bladed dagger on his hand. 

“I don’t need to overcompensate.” Grimmjow said easily making Yylfordt stop smirking. 

“No, you just need to stalk a mountain man for a month until he finally agrees to have sex with you.” 

“…Asshole.” 

“Psychopath.” 

They threw themselves at each other throats with smiles on their faces. With similar ages, similar tastes and ideals, Yylfordt had always been like a brother to Grimmjow. Shawlong was way too serious for him, Di Roy to young, and Nakeem to weird. Edrad had sometimes joined them both on their fights and pranks when young, but as a father with two little girls now, the big male was now far away in their mother planet taking care of his own family.  

So he and Yylfordt crossed blades with the certainty and ease of people who had fought alongside for ages. They moved against each other as if they were dancing, pulling away and punching each other as brothers playing after a long time apart. As if they both needed these moments. 

It had just passed a few minutes of their new fight, with a few more insults and preliminary clashes, when another voice interrupted them. 

“Grimmjow!” Di Roy called breathing hard, as if he had been running a long distance to get to him “W-we have a problem, it’s Cirruci” 

Grimmjow instantly stopped his movements, took a breath, and centered. He transformed from a man fighting along with his captain and friend, to the deadly general the galaxy feared. 

Yylfordt pulled away instantly noticing the change, his gaze disappointed but professional. There could be no mistakes in their world, and they all knew it. Grimmjow had managed to build up in his ship a remnant of peace and a supportive environment for his people. Edrad building up a family and being able to take care of it had only been possible thanks to Grimmjow tactics and strength. However, now the outside world had invaded his den and would keep on doing so, and they all needed to take care and be careful. 

“I will keep training the men,” Yylfordt said, as Grimmjow tried again to become the predator and monster “Go fix it. We will train another day.” 

Grimmjow nodded to his man, placed again his knife in his boot, and instantly turned and walked out the room following a nervous Di Roy. The soldiers bowed as he exited the room, respect and pride in some of their eyes, but Grimmjow didn’t even notice.

 

...oOo... 

The big hall looked exactly as it did last time, with the stunning view of the green mountains covered in mist, the clean lines of the windows and the wooden floors, the caramel sofas, little coffee tables…and the big group of slaves moaning and following one person with their eyes as if they wanted to devour her. 

Grimmjow again tried not to react, not to grimace, to kill the bitch who was now standing in his den. 

He approached the group this time with an angry step, Di Roy following him behind him slightly pale and rigid for a reason that hadn’t yet explained to him. Grimmjow didn’t care however, he had been good, he had behaved as Aizen wanted them to behave, he had allowed the woman into the ship, and tried for civility. But if the woman had caused some kind of trouble to his people, if she had stopped being “good”… well, he had no reason to behave either. 

Just as he got near the little crowd of slaves, Cirruci finally noticed him and stood up surprised from where she had been sitting on the sofa petting one of the now naked males. 

She wore even less clothing today than the last time he had seen her. The tight almost transparent dress she was wearing hugged every little curve of her petite body and had a neckline that plummeted to her bellybutton, showing _everything_. She was covered in jewelry too, gold and bold and contrasting against her pale skin, her makeup was on point as always, and the high-heels she wore could probably be used as a weapon. 

She was gorgeous. A walking temptation that would send several men to their knees. But Grimmjow was not one of them. He knew the truth, how under all that glitter she was a crazy psychopath who would have no hesitation in stabbing him when she got the slightest chance. 

“Grimmy!” she called out, pouting innocently with purple lips as he stopped before the group “Why are you here? I told them not to let you enter, I wanted it to be a surprise!” 

Her slaves pouted with her, like children about to throw a tantrum. They all looked different today, even less clothed than their owner, but with a strange sparkle in their eyes. As if they shared Cirucci's enthusiasm and mischief. 

Grimmjow frowned at the group, his instincts telling him something was incredibly wrong. If the manipulative woman was happy it was going to be a nightmare for him. Espada hated each other with a few exceptions, like him and Ulquiorra, or Halibell and Neliel. The others, however, enjoyed the chaos and enjoyed seeing one of their own crumbling down. Cirucci, with her crazy mind and crazy antics one of the most. 

“What have you done?” he asked therefore, reading himself for an attack, ready to give the order and let his men tear at the woman. It wouldn’t be the first time two Espada had gone to war. 

“Okay, okay. Gosh, you are such a boring guy,” she said raising her arms in the air dramatically “I wanted to give it to you as a present, but I guess it would be pointless to wait more now that you are here.” 

Cirucci smiled again at him with that dark glee in her painted eyes. She turned slightly and walked towards a big cage covered by a white cloth that had been placed in a corner of the room. Grimmjow had noticed it when had entered the room but haven’t paid attention to it, his attention focused elsewhere, now however it made him even more unease, his instincts telling him that _there_ was where the problem laid.  

Cirucci stopped before the cage, her shoes clicking on the wood of the floor. Then she turned to face him as she pulled on the white cloth covering the cage letting it slide down its structure and towards the floor in a theatrical movement. 

Grimmjow mind stopped working and for a minute he could just stare. 

Right inside the cage was the man he had been following for a month. With wild messed orange hair, soft delicate skin tanned by the mountain sun, and a pair of brown eyes that looked at him angrier than Grimmjow ever remembered. He was chained with several metal cuffs, of course, Cirruci would have allowed nothing less. His hands were linked behind his back showing the curves of his pectorals, his legs were similarly bound together as he kneeled, and his mouth was even covered by a cloth silencing him in what could probably be considered an erotic display. 

He also had now one of those slaves’ collars that couldn’t be removed and could kill in seconds. A thin and black strap of cloth around his neck that would help the owner control him.

Grimmjow breathed in and out trying to control his reaction to the sight. It proved impossible. As he kept on staring, he noticed a big purple bruise on the man’s nape as if he had been hit hard. There was blood on his clothes, the fabric torn and stretched from an obvious struggle. There was also that murderous look on his eyes of a man who wanted revenge. 

Cirucci had hurt him. And not just physically. 

Grimmjow started to see black. 

“Ta-dah” Cirucci said not seeming to see his reaction and making a big gesture towards the man in the cage “I hope I got the right one, humans are all so plain and similar is hard to distinguish them. Still, I think I get why you were trying to get this one” 

The woman looked at the roughened and blood covered man up and down, chained and on his knees, and bit her lip with a hungry smile. Grimmjow nails dug into his palms.

“He is so feisty,” the woman continued breathlessly “He has been fighting and thrashing since he woke up. He even bit one of my caretakers you see, that’s why we had to cover his pretty mouth. His two wolves were a pain too, all biting and angry, but that was another matter you won’t need to worry about anymore.” 

Cirucci turned to him with a smile on her mouth. A cruel one. A real non-fake one. As if she knew what was crossing Grimmjow’s mind and as if that’s exactly what she has been aiming at. Grimmjow knew then that she was just having her little revenge, she thought she had him in the palm of her hand, thinking she was winning over him. 

“I’m sure you will have fun taming him” she said looking at him with that victorious look “Now, shall we discuss the purchasing contract? It will be cheap, I promise, it _is a present for my favorite friend after all._ ” 

Grimmjow was murdering her. 

He stepped forward, hand lifted already summoning his power. Cirucci’s eyes turned crazed, cruel and ugly and she opened her mouth as if to tell him something, a threat, a warning. 

Then, everything happened way too fast. 

The sound of something breaking inside the cage was heard as if something metallic had snapped with force. An unpleasant sound. Grimmjow saw the orange haired human move a second after, uncoiling from his seated position and trying to stand up with still tied feet. He saw the man take the knife from their last encounter, the one he had threatened Grimmjow with, the one the human always carried away hidden between clothes…and instantly launch himself at Cirucci. 

Cirucci wasn’t paying attention to the pretty human male anymore, her attention totally focused on Grimmjow and her supposed victory. She saw nothing of the threat, she heard nothing, she had lowered her guard to the human completely, in a gesture Arrancars were never supposed to do. 

Grimmjow knew then what was going to happen, Cirucci’s body was too close to the cage and the male’s eyes were focused and intent on one person. Grimmjow could have stopped it easily, push Cirucci forward and out of range, stop the man with a little amount of power... Yet, he did not. 

The man stabbed her right through the heart, the blade sliding under one scapula and exiting between the ribs in a deadly move. Blood painted her pretty, transparent dress a vivid red, and started to slide down her body in thick viscous drops. 

“That’s for Shiro and Mugetsu” the angry human hissed behind her, removing the clothe covering his mouth and pulling his hand back inside the cage taking the knife from Cirucci’s body. 

The woman knees gave out instantly and she felt to his knees and into a growing puddle of blood. Her skin was becoming clammy and pale with every passing second, and there was a surprised pained look appearing on her face. It was as if the last thing she had ever expected was for a simple slave to kill her. 

Grimmjow smirked at the fallen woman. Arrancars were powerful and had skills beyond comprehension that allowed them to rule, but they were still mortals. They bleed, they hurt, they die like any other creature. Underestimating an enemy just because you were stronger was stupid. They weren’t allowed to lower their guards even for a second, they were Arrancars, they were allowed no weakness. Before him, Cirucci had forgotten that sacred rule and therefore, she was dying. 

Grimmjow watched impassively as her muscles start to cramp with the blood loss, as her skin turned a light purple and blue, and her eyes glossy and lightless before finally, she felt to the ground to never rise again. 

The screaming started just then. 

It was the slave girl from last time, the one Cirucci had been playing with, pinching her nipple and making her moan as if she liked it. The cute little girl stood up, trembling and horrified, before running towards the entrance of the hall with a crazed look on her eyes and a smile on her mouth. Several others followed her, bawling, and laughing with dead crazed eyes around the room. A small group of slaves, however, stayed, looking at Cirruci’s corpse with faces of hate and victory. 

Grimmjow ignored them for the moment and instead focused on the human still trapped in the cage. 

The rage and anger for what Cirucci had done to his prey were still inside Grimmjow boiling deep down, but after what had happened, he could feel them already shrinking. This wasn’t the way he had wanted to capture the man; he had wanted him to come willingly, tamed and happy, but still, this was what had happened. He couldn’t go back in time and change it, and complaining and worrying about it was useless. 

He walked the last three steps that separated him from the cage’s metallic bars and kneeled down to be face to face with the man. The human male had sat down again with his hands resting on his bloodied knees, and a defeated air around him. 

“Didn’t they search you before putting you on the cage? Didn’t they find the knife?” he asked mildly surprised that the man had been able to keep the knife. 

“No” the human answered; his voice low but the tone rude. 

Grimmjow smirked amazed at Cirucci’s arrogance and stupidity. How has she been able to survive this long? 

He observed orange haired man again. The human was still looking down at his bloodied hands, eyes hidden by his hair, and trembling pretty badly. Grimmjow didn’t know if it was from cold, pain or sadness, but for a minute he had the urge to get inside the cage with him and pet and kiss and comfort him to make it better. The human just looked too sad, defeated and lost, a normal thing after being captured Grimmjow guessed, but it wasn’t a look that fit the man he’d hunted for so long. 

“How… the hell did they capture you?” he asked instead, trying to take the man out of whatever dark thoughts he was having.

And just with that, the man lifted his head and glared at Grimmjow as if he was the most annoying nuisance he had ever encountered. Brown warm eyes with a pissed look and a spark of violence. The ones he loved. Grimmjow tried not to smile way too relieved by the sight. The man was fine, he would be fine, Grimmjow would make sure of that personally.

“Keep your secrets then,” he said shrugging, knowing he had other ways to find out “I’m still gonna need for you to be good and give me the knife.” 

The man huffed, amused at his antics and with a challenging look again appearing on his pretty face. He lifted a hand slowly and showed him the middle finger with a smirk. Grimmjow frowned, confused by the gesture, but as the man didn’t move, it was clear that he was not going to give him the knife. 

He sighed. So, the bad way it was. 

_Nice_.

Grimmjow called to his power. 

There were two ways Arrancars could control a person. One was through the mind, encaging and twisting it as Cirruci had done with her slaves. The man however, seemed to be too fucked up at the moment for that, and Grimmjow wasn’t an expert like Aizen or Ulquiorra to be subtle. The most he had accomplished with his mind powers was to numb and change the emotions on his enemies, which would be almost useless now. He also needed to make the man to look into his eyes for that and the man was still glaring down at the floor with intent. 

Physical control, on the other, had always been his specialty. 

He could make people jump from a roof, punch or masturbate themselves at his will. It had been fun when he had been younger, and it had also been pretty useful during the wars. Physical control was also much easier to use than mind games since it followed simple rules: if you had more muscle than your opponent you could overpower them. It was like using normal physical strength but from a distance. Grimmjow could probably overpower Ulquiorra who was a skinny muscleless asshole, but he would have several problems when fighting against Yami who was twice his size. 

The man in front of him was stronger than Ulquiorra - everyone was stronger than Ulquiorra, a butterfly was stronger than Ulquiorra - but he was not as strong as Grimmjow. 

He pushed forward. 

The man in the cage instantly resisted when he felt Grimmjow’s intention and his power moving him, he had always resisted him, in the cave, in the water, it was what had made things fun, what had made him a good adversary to play with. He never surrendered, he always kept on fighting him. Grimmjow had never used it too much on him, just a little nudge stopping him as he ran away, raising his arms as they almost kissed...now however things were different and the man had to learn who had the upper hand here, and so Grimmjow didn’t restrain his powers this time.

The man glared at Grimmjow with death in his brown eyes as his body moved forward, approaching the iron bars Grimmjow was still kneeling against. The human extended his bloodied hand out between the bars, and released the knife right into Grimmjow waiting hand, like a pet obeying his master. 

Grimmjow smirked, having way too much fun with the boy’s obvious anger, and just to mess up with him even more, he leaned forward and kissed him on the lips in a swift move. Just a little peck, a touch of soft lips against his own between the bars, a little taste, a little comfort.

Pulling back, he ruffled the man’s messy orange hair one last time and finally, he released him. 

The man instantly tried to punch him between the bars and when failing, he started insulting him with his face turning a deep shade of red. 

“You stupid SON OF A BITCH! I’m fucking killing you. You are going to be such a bloodied pulp when I’m done with you that not even you stupid friends would recognize you, you hear me, asshole? _I’m butchering you_!” 

Gosh, he was so cute. Standing up, Grimmjow turned to find Shawlong observing the human and their interactions with a raised eyebrow. 

“Well, that solves one problem,” Shawlong said before looking at Cirucci’s corpse, and then at the slaves who were now looking around the room distrusting. “That, however, causes _several_ others.” 

“It wasn’t my fault this time” Grimmjow grunted annoyed. 

“It is always your fault one way or another, Grimmjow,” the man said before mumbling to himself “I should have served Stark” 

Grimmjow grimaced. “That lazy old fuck? He is so much boring than me.” 

“But saner,” Di Roy commented as he approached their group. “What do we do with the mess?” 

Grimmjow lifted his middle finger to his captain in the same gesture the human had done moments before. Di Roy observed the gesture before blinking confused at him. Grimmjow smirked satisfied and turned to Shawlong. 

“Mmm take the slaves that are still sane and send them to Halibell or Nel, they will know what to do with them. Also, throw that bitch’s corpse out of my ship and clean the place and fix the room, there is also a broken wall on the training room needs to be looked at,” he said remembering his fight with Yylfordt. Then he sighted “I probably need to explain this to Aizen.” 

“And the slaved that are too mad to be saved?” Shawlong finally asked. 

“Death sometimes can be mercy.” 

Both males nodded understanding. Then Di Roy turned to the human still on the cage with curious eyes. None of his Fracción had ever seen the man, and after a month of pursuit, they were obviously more than curious about the human who had caught their leader’s attention. 

The man returned their looks with a death stare, but still, he seemed to be unable to get rid of the slight blush still on his face. Grimmjow smiled at him. 

“And what you want us to do with him?” Di Roy asked. 

“Tell the doctor to run a scan over him to heal any injuries, then take him to my rooms. They installed the kitchen last night so it should be ready by now. I will take care of the rest,” he said happily, pleased to finally have what he wanted. 

Then he finally turned and walked out of the hall to explain to Aizen how there had been _a horrible accident_ in the ship and how one of his dear Espada was now dead. He didn’t saw this time either the amused looks his captains exchanged.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know that people that keep on hugging a cat, and petting and loving it even when the cat bites them to death and wants to get free by any means? Grimmjow is going to be like that. 
> 
> I hope you have liked the chapter, and that you have calmed down a bit after the little explanation about the mind powers since you all looked so worried about them. 
> 
> Finally I have to thank Mykko_Chan for betaing this chapter and helping me with a few problems on the plot. Thanks a lot darling, I'm learning a lot with our talks. 
> 
> As always comments and kudos are apreciated and keep motivation up. Just saying.


	6. Rollercoaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the delay, I know this should have been posted a week ago, but there is a thing called master thesis that is driving me insane. I also apologize in advance cos I don't know if I will be able to make it the next weeks on time either. In any case, here I am and ready for the GrimmIchi day, and with a lot of help from my beta Mykko_chan, love you.

Ichigo laid down on the metallic table feeling numb. The medical room they had taken him to wasn’t especially big, and it was full of noisy machines and beeping lights. Cabinets with medicines and glass bottles contained things Ichigo had never seen before, and posters and diagrams hanging on the walls explained this or that organ. The place made him feel slightly claustrophobic, cramped in a space too small and full of things, and the big Arrancar doctor who took up half of the space wasn’t helping either. Thankfully, the lights were low as if to not disturb the patients, and the scent of medicines or the white clothes the man wore brought back memories of his old days in the family clinic and calmed his already numbed mind.

Under any other circumstance, Ichigo would probably have been excited to find himself in such a place. As a medicine student, this room was full of new apparatus and theories he could learn about. The doctors could answer some of his questions, like how the virus that had killed humanity worked? How Arrancars could control minds? Or how could they survive a _fucking bomb_?

But not now.

Now he felt drained. Too many things had happened in too little time and he was still processing it all and being unable to take anything more. That’s why, he hand’t dare move or had started a fight in the place. He just couldn’t.

Nakeem, the huge fat doctor with a pissed off face that had been checking his vital signs for a few minutes, finally ordered him to lie down, and Ichigo obeyed without complaint. The metal felt cold and uncomfortable against the abused skin of his nape and hands, but a crystal shell soon appeared over him covering all his body over the metallic table, and several lights started to travel over his skin scanning signals and his body in a weird fashion.

And Ichigo still didn’t move, didn’t react, hardly dared to think.

_He had killed someone today._

The woman had been his enemy, she had killed Shiro and Mugetsu and had laughed for it, she had been evil punishing and kicking him when he hadn’t behaved as she wanted… _and he had killed her_.

He was an assassin now, a monster, an abomination like the Arrancars he had hated all these years. The fact destroyed the last remnants of innocence and hope he had inside him, and he felt his old self, the medical student who cared and wanted to protect others, disappear under the cruel reality of the world. He had become the monster he had wanted to destroy; he had become a monster in order to survive.

His father would be pissed, his sisters horrified, Shiro and Mugetsu…were also dead now.

Their deaths were a thing he didn’t dare think about. Not here, not ever. He wasn’t prepared for that emotional punch and he knew he would never be. He had lost his family once, losing it again a second time, losing his friends, his brothers, the only creatures that had kept him sane these last years, would finally destroy him, and he needed his mind intact if he wanted to keep on surviving.

So, when the scanning lights stopped and the doctor signalled him to sit up, Ichigo didn’t think about anything, he didn’t talk, he just obeyed and moved trying to heal his mind. He continued being numb, repressing the emotions, containing his panic, because apart from all those things that had teared at his soul, he had also been captured by the Arrancars.

His freedom had been taken, his pride crushed, his future destroyed. _He had nothing now_. He was a pet, a toy the blue-haired bastard would play with until he tired. But maybe it was what he deserved, his karma. After surviving his two families, after living in freedom for so long, after becoming a killer, maybe this was the universe’s way of compensating for it all.

“You are fine,” the doctor finally stated after checking the figures on his screen, not looking at Ichigo, as if he was not important anymore “You have a contusion on your nape and a few scratches on your hands and wrists from pulling at the handcuffs. One of your ribs is also broken. Did she kick you?”

Ichigo nodded already knowing what the diagnostic would read. The pain had numbed along with anything else when they had taken him into this room. But he remembered quite well how the Arrancar woman had enjoyed herself kicking at him when he had been chained. She had even laughed maniacally when Ichigo had screamed after the rib snapped.

She was dead now. _Ichigo had killed her_.

The doctor walked around the small room to take a bottle full of a blue viscous slime, and turning to him, he again ordered Ichigo to lie down. Ichigo obeyed, not wanting nor caring about resisting. The huge brown-haired male leaned over him, uncapped the bottle, and poured its contents over Ichigo chest, right over his bloodied shirt and the place where his rib throbbed in pain. Then he turned again, took another bottle full of a white ointment from another self, and silently, he applied it on Ichigo’s hands and over the scrapes.

Ichigo closed his eyes and let the man fuss over him not caring about what was done to him.

He concentrated on his aches, on the way the weird slime seemed to be penetrating through his skin and dripping down muscles to reach the broken rib, about how his hands tingled, and his breath felt awkward and small. After a while, the doctor signalled at him to move again so he could work on his back and started to massage something warm on his bruised nape, and finally the scratch on his face.

When the man seemed to be satisfied with the results, he ordered Ichigo to rise, and tapped Ichigo’s skin over his broken rib. The blue thing came out of his body obediently and dripped into the glass bottle where it belonged.

Ichigo tested his movement out of curiosity.

The scratches on his hands and face had vanished as if they had never been there, his nape was also healed, he could move his head without any cramps, and his rib didn’t even ache. Hundreds of questions rose in his head in a second. How? What was that blue slime? How had he used it? Could he touch it? Was it sentient? How could the salves heal him so fast?...but instead, all he did was just stare at the doctor with blank eyes.

The man sighed.

“Stop looking so depressed, boy,” the doctor said “Right now you are in shock. An understandable reaction after what had happened, but it will pass. You will rage, and cry then, and the guilt and sadness would disappear, only to return again after a while. That’s fine too. Killing for the first time is an emotional fuckery, but it will go away with time and you would understand that you did what needed to be done.”

“I… killed someone,” Ichigo said, his words slow, numb and tired. That fact still burning on his mind.

“And Grimmjow would have killed her if you hadn’t done it first. She crossed the line long ago. She got what she deserved.”

Ichigo blinked again. The weight of guilt lifting from his shoulders just a bit.

“…I’m a slave.”

The man laughed this time as he kept on putting the bottles back on the cabinets, checking the machines and sifting them off. Working on the place as if this was his own refuge and kingdom to command.

“Fufufufu, yes, you are. But it’s Grimmjow we are talking about; he had never had a slave before so he will probably be a total disaster as a keeper. Don’t worry about him. This will be fun.”

Ichigo frowned this time at the answer as the huge creepy man kept on laughing, putting his weird bottles on the cabinets and humming happily. This place seemed to be full of weird crazy people. Where the hell had he ended up?

 

…oOo…

After talking to the doctor about side effects and health recommendations, Ichigo finally finished his check in, and the doctor took him to the room of the blue-haired Arrancar -Grimmjow, as his name apparently was.  There, he advised him to take a bath to relax, and finally, he left to attend other duties on the ship, leaving Ichigo alone for the first time in hours.

He took his first calming breath in hours, and felt the numbness recede a bit. 

After living alone in the open wilderness for so long, it was taking him to much effort to accustom himself to so many people and closed spaces.

The room he was in however quickly served to distract him.

Full of plants, books and other strange objects he didn’t recognize, the room looked like the room of any other human male, if they were rich, warriors, and commanded a spaceship. There were several types of weapons on the shelves, from blades to guns or bows made of black obsidian stone. Books of very different topics and in different languages were scattered everywhere along with maps and strategic documents. Several plants and flowers climbed the walls and even moved following Ichigo as he passed by exploring the room. There were fluffy rugs, the biggest bed Ichigo had ever seen, and even a little kitchen with a table and a pair of chairs to cook little things and prepare a humble meal.

It looked…luxurious yet simple and practical. A military’s room.

 Ichigo for a moment wanted to explore the place, read a book, maybe try to decipher a document or touch the weird plant in the corner, but his mind kept on returning to the word “bath” the other Arrancar had mentioned. How long had it been since he had taken a proper bath? With warm water? With shampoo and soap? Would there be brushes? Towels? Other weird things like the ones in this room?

Grabbing one of the small knifes on the selves just for precaution, Ichigo had walked towards the small door on one side of the room, with trepidation starting to bloom in his mind.

The bathroom was not as big as the main room, but it still was bigger than his old room in his family house. Ichigo was starting to hate this Grimmjow guy for more than one reason. The room had a huge window on the ceiling partially covered with more climbing and glowing plants. The floors were made of stone here, probably to resist the humidity, and were covered with more fluffy and soft looking rugs he was sure he could sleep in.

However, once he entered, Ichigo couldn’t help but stare at the centrepiece of the place: the huge fucking bath in the middle of it all that Ichigo was sure he could swim in. Made of a creamy marble, with golden decorations, it made Ichigo remember one of those baths from the old Roman emperors. Extravagant and huge and trying to give a statement.

Approaching it slowly, Ichigo jumped in surprise as the thing suddenly started to fill itself with water as if it had detected his presence and guessed his intentions. Bubbles rose from the depths of the tub as Ichigo watched, and a fragrant scent of spices and exotic oils filled the room inviting him to get into the water and relax. The closed room filled with the heat of the water quickly as Ichigo studied it all distrustingly, with the knife on his hand, and the plants above him shining as if happy with the change in humidity.

After a while of nothing else happening, Ichigo however just broke down at the sensorial overload. With his mind momentarily forgetting his problems and the numbness, Ichigo started to take off his bloodied and torn clothes, ready to jump inside the awesome bath waiting for him right there.

He was pulling down his pants, when his reflection in one of the mirrors caught his eyes and he stopped dead.

Last time he had seen his reflection in a mirror he had had a family, a career, and a future. However, the man who now looked back at him was a total stranger. He was bigger than he remembered being, taller, and his muscles had better definition. His skin was dark, burned from the mountain sun, covered in scars, and now also contrasting against the black and thin slave collar around his neck. His hair though, it was the same orange mess it had always been, and the Kurosaki mole all his family shared still looked as weird on his hipbone as it had always looked.

However, the most striking difference was his face. The soft and chubby lines of his teenage years had disappeared to be replaced by the harsh angles and hard lines of adulthood. His eyes had lost his innocence and looked centered, serious and dangerous.

He looked older, deadlier and badass, not awkward and skinny as he had been. He would be considered hot by human standards now. He smirked at himself at the thought, and his reflection showed his teeth in a grin similar to that of his wolves.

The smile faded almost instantly.

Ignoring dark thoughts, still not wanting to think and not wanting to feel, Ichigo strapped the knife to his leg with a teared piece of his torn shirt, and got into the bath who had stopped filling itself as Ichigo stared at his reflection.

Warm, almost scalding water caressed his calves, then his knees and finally, Ichigo dived in.

 _It felt like bliss_.

For a moment he just floated there not daring to move in the warm concoction that smelled like his sister’s spiced tea. He fucking moaned in pleasure. He felt the tiredness of several years disappear, the tension vanished, and his mind relaxed as the warm water seemed to soothe every one of his aches.

Damn, he had missed baths. There was something religious on the experience, it was like a hug from nature.

After a while of sighting in pleasure, moving around and just feeling like a fish, Ichigo took one of the sponges of a small cabinet next to the tube and started to scrub himself clean with passion. The water started to turn pink as the dried blood on his skin and the dirt coloured it, but Ichigo ignored and kept on cleaning himself .

However, the more he stayed in the bath, the more his mind seemed to reawaken and get out of the numbness, and the more it reminded him that he was alone again and trapped with the blue-haired asshole with no way of escape.

He had lost. It was over.

He had tried so hard to maintain his freedom. He had evaded him for a whole month, and Ichigo was sure he could have continued doing so hadn’t it been for the female Arrancar. The fact that he was here on this stupid ship, after everything he had suffered, and with the blue-haired asshole not even moving a finger for it, wasn’t fair. It shouldn’t have been this way. His wolves shouldn’t have died. The female Arrancar should still be alive. It was all the Grimmjow’s fault for not hunting him as he had always done.

And why the hell had he kissed him? Was this a joke to him? Another game? Slavery was a joke now?

Ichigo suddenly got out of the bath feeling way too pissed and disgusted by everything. He remembered the doctor telling him that he might get angry once the shock subsided, but Ichigo didn’t care. He _was_ pissed, and it felt _good_.

Pulling one of the soft towels around his waist, he got out of the bathtub and the bathroom wanting to punch the blue-haired man and show him that he was not going to be his slave so easily, that he would bow for no one, even less an asshole like him who took advantage of people.

Sadly, as he got out, he found himself still alone in the room. The other man didn’t seem to have arrived yet, and so Ichigo’s anger didn’t find an outlet.

He looked around again feeling as trapped as before, but now with that fucking ball of rage, impotence, and anger inside his throat. He looked at the pretty plants, at the soothing furniture, and at the huge bed, they would probably need to share at night. He observed the luxurious stuff that no one really needed on this world, the ornamental weapons, the strange machines, and the soft rugs, luxury items that the blue haired Arrancar _didn’t fucking deserve_.

Getting closer to one of the shelves, Ichigo randomly picked up a huge crystal globe that resembled a map of the earth and was the size of his head, and raising it above his head, he took impulse and shattered it against the huge window that showed the mountains.

The crystal globe instantly broke, coloured crystals spreading on the wooden floor, and shattering into even smaller pieces that reflected rainbows.

Ichigo breathed in, looking at the mess.

Fuck _, that_ had felt good.

Going on impulse, his mind still trying to accept all that was happening, his body tense and his whole world destroyed, Ichigo went on. Taking the chair next to the table this time, he shattered it against the floor while picturing the Arrancar’s face on it. He screamed with the strike, the pressure in his chest easing out a bit with the impact, and tears burning on his eyes.

He picked up the little diner table next.

 

…oOo…

Amused and slightly irritated, Grimmjow crossed his arms and observed the wild little thing in his bedroom going nuts. The man was tantalizingly half dressed, with just a little towel covering the necessary parts and riding dangerously low as he smashes and kept on moving around the place in anger. His hair was still wet, probably from just taking a bath, and it made him look impossibly sexier, roughen up and wild. There were no more bruises covering his skin, or that dark look on his eyes, no, he looked much livelier now.

He was also destroying Grimmjow’s room with glee.

Half the things he had gathered through his travels were already crushed on the floor, and the rest seemed to be about to follow the same path if he didn’t stop the massacre. The plants had been saved, thankfully, maybe the man didn’t want to destroy nature or other living things, but the rest of his stuff had not been that lucky, and the books, blades, and furniture lay broken or scattered on the floor as if the human had had a personal grudge against them. Meanwhile, the man cursed, kicked and kept on destroying things as if in some kind of trance.

“He has… issues,” Grimmjow commented to Shawlong who had followed him after his talk with Aizen and who was also looking at the half-naked man in his room surprised.

“He had had a hard day, I guess it’s understandable,” the other agreed with a cough. “You also tend to destroy things when angry.”

Grimmjow shrugged and smiled. Yeah, he also seemed to have some anger problems that needed fixing. Nakeem used to comment on the thing.

However, as Grimmjow continued to observe the man destroying his room, he couldn’t help but notice the floor covered with sharp crystals, blades, and harmful things, and the man’s naked feet running all over them.

Grimmjow frowned.

“I am going to try to calm him down,” he said to his second who still seemed to be speechless by the show “Call the cleaning team and make them fix the mess.”

Shawlong frowned. “We don’t have a cleaning team.”

Grimmjow smirked this tie.

“We do now. Yylfordt’s unit. I just decided it would be part of his penalty. They should be in the training room,” he answered smiling.

Shawlong frowned more looking at him this time. “You just don’t want to clean this yourself.”

Grimmjow shrugged, ignored the other man and went into room. He closed the door behind himself for precaution, leaving himself alone with the crazy man and his destroyed room. He knew he should be pissed, it was his fucking room, the only refuge he had on the whole damn universe, but just one look at the man’s face and his rapid breathing, and the anger just disappeared.

Hard day indeed.

As he approached the man, the orange-haired beauty finally seemed to notice him and stopped his destruction. Grimmjow smiled at him and lifted a hand in a gesture he had seen on the human videos trying to be polite. The man’s attention focused completely at him with that, and before Grimmjow knew it, the naked man was running his way with the leg of one of his chairs in his hand and murder in his eyes.

Grimmjow sighed.

Dodging the attack, he crouched a bit, grabbed the human by his waist and rose up easily with the man now slumped over his shoulder. The human instantly thrashed and insulted him some more trying to get down from the position, but Grimmjow ignored him. He was not letting him down on a floor covered in shards. So he patted a very nice and plump ass instead, and walked towards the bathroom he hoped was still intact.

“Now, now, calm down, or you will hurt yourself, dear,” he mocked as he entered the bath and closed this door too behind them. Yylfordt’s pissed screams were already starting to be heard from the hallway and he needed a bit of peace for this.

Slowly and with care, he lowered the man to one of the floor’s fluffy rugs. The human instantly tried to get away from him and punch him, but Grimmjow didn’t let him. Taking the man’s face between his hands he stared down at him as the man tried to push away and kick him.

His eyes were hateful, his whole face a grimace of rage and indignation, his lips were pulled back showing teeth, and his hair was that lovely mess that gave him ideas.

He was so fucking cute. And his. He owned this human now, no one was touching or harming him again. _This man belonged to him._ Grimmjow couldn’t help but smirk evilly at the man feeling happier than he ever remembered being.

Feeling also a bit mischievous, Grimmjow pulled the man close and kissed him quickly again on the lips. The boy instantly emitted a noise as if he was dying and turning homicidal, but Grimmjow still didn’t let him go and containing a laugh, he crushed him in a tight a hug.  He rubbed his face over the man’s orange hair in the same way the panthers of the jungle had done with him those months ago, scent marking him as pack and as one of his own. It had felt mildly satisfying back then, raw tongue, fluffy fur, purrs and licks.

It felt awesome now too as he did it to the man.

The human, however, didn’t seem to be appreciating the claiming and he tried to kick him again when Grimmjow licked his hair, and when that failed, he bit him and dug blunt, useless nails into his arms and back. Grimmjow only nuzzled him harder after that containing a fit of laughter, his hair, his face, his neck, rubbing their cheeks together and messing his hair up even more receiving choked squeaks from the man.

After a few minutes of petting, heavy hugging and caresses, the man’s struggles seemed to stop, and his breathing became more relaxed as he finally seemed to calm down.

“Better now?” Grimmjow said pressing his mouth against the man’s jaw, wanting to bite and claim him in a more physical way, but knowing it would be too much for the man right now.

“Fuck you,” the human answered.

He was deep red and not looking at him in the eyes. Grimmjow smiled. He pulled back as the sound of people working and cursing outside the room started to be heard thought the door.

Finally, he had the first good look at his new slave.

The man was tense, tenser than he had ever seen him, as if he expected Grimmjow to eat him alive or harm him. It was an understanding reaction after meeting Cirruci, but Grimmjow still didn’t like it. He wanted the man to like him too, to trust him so they could become friends and partners with time. Someone in the universe that Grimmjow could also trust unconditionally and share experiences with. It would be difficult, he knew, they had been fighting just a day ago, and it would take time for the man to accept him, but Grimmjow will not surrender. Their fights and chases through the forest and nature weren’t yet over.

Pulling back a bit more and seeing how the man didn’t directly attack him, Grimmjow slowly knelt before the worn-out human, and touched one of his naked feet. “Did you get cut by the shards?”

“No,” the human said still with that strangled voice, tense and paralyzed.

“Show me.”

He lifted one of the man’s feet making the standing man suddenly lose his balance and have to support himself on Grimmjow’s kneeling form. The man cursed. Grimmjow, however only kneaded tender skin between his fingers with care, checking for injuries and some kind of damage, but finding nothing that spoke of trouble, he pulled it back down.

“You should be more careful with your body; how will you serve me if you can’t walk?” He lifted his head to meet two huge and surprised brown eyes, and a face so red he resembled a tomato. “You also won’t be needing this.”

Raising his hand slowly up the man’s soft and tanned leg, caressing silk soft skin all the way up, he undid the knot strapping one of his knifes to the boy’s leg. He did it slowly, with careful delicate movements against his tight as he stared up at the boy’s eyes that seemed to be about to bulge out of his eyes.

Grimmjow was kneeling in front of him, the boy was only wearing a towel and his hands were still caressing soft skin so close to a fun and dangerous zone. The position and the whole situation spoke volumes, it would take but a push for it to turn heated and sexy and the man seemed to be understanding it quite well. Yet, the human didn’t stop him.

He just seemed about to have an aneurism.   

Grimmjow stood up trying to contain a smirk. It wasn’t the time yet. He needed to gain the man’s trust first, he needed to play good and nice for a few days until the man relaxed. No matter how enticing the man looked, or how much he wanted to do naughty things and play and tease him, he was no rapist, he needed his consent first.

“What’s your name?” he asked instead, trying to change the topic, relax the atmosphere.

The man looked away, he was still practically naked, covered in sweat rom the tantrum and wet from the bath, he still had messy wet hair, blushing checks that quickened breath that made Grimmjow think about more interesting things they could be doing in the bed.

Fuck, he was going to die from blue balls at this rate, wasn’t he? 

“Ichigo,” the human finally answered. “I’m Ichigo”

“I’m Grimmjow”

“I know,” the man said frowning again.

“Okay,” Grimmjow answered awkwardly. His eyes trailing over naked tanned skin and perked up nipples that were begging at him to be bitten. Fuck. “…I’m going to get you some clothes.”

He retreated from the bathroom quickly and into the main room before he did something he shouldn’t. Yylfordt and his gang were still cleaning his room and complaining about it. In other circumstances, it would have been hella funny to see a group of deadly huge soldiers carrying around brooms and cleaning aprons as they scrubbed the floor. He would have teased, joked and laughed at them. Now however he had other priorities.

Having Ichigo half-naked around him wasn’t safe.

Ignoring the crew and everything else, he went to his smashed closet and started to look inside its broken pieces for something that could fit the human slim frame. He ignored Yylfordt weirded out gaze, and the frowning looks of his soldiers as no jokes came their way. It was okay. They just couldn’t understand the problem.

 

…oOo…

Ichigo sat on the dining table as the last of the soldiers left the room sending a final glare his way. He looked away wanting to hide under a rock and never came up again. That crew of Arrancars clearly hated him now and with reason. At any other time, he would have rejoiced on the fact, however, after that tantrum, things were much different and he felt a bit embarrassed.

After giving him some clothes and looking very relieved for it, Grimmjow, the blue haired asshole, has sat him in on the repaired table and had started _to cook for him,_ as if it was a normal thing to do for a slave, with his soldiers still cleaning the area.

It had been surreal.

Ichigo had spent half an hour watching huge dangerous Arrancars clean up the mess he had created while giving him dark looks. It had been more than humiliating, which might have been the blue haired man’s intentions, a way to teach him to behave or something.

Still, Ichigo was still wondering what had gotten into him. He wasn’t a violent guy, he had never done something like this, not even when his family had died. He knew it all could be attributed to the hormonal mess he was probably under, or the incidents of the last day, maybe the stress, or even the weird drugs Nakeem had given him …but still, he should have been able to contain himself.

He stretched on the wooden table and looked at his owner. Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, the man who owned this ship, led those other Arrancars, and was probably the deadliest man he had ever met.

Ichigo didn’t know what to make of him. He was his enemy, an Arrancar, a race that only seemed to hurt humans. Still, if the other had wanted to hurt and abuse him, he had lost too many opportunities, and if he wanted to fuck him - as he clearly did want too, Ichigo was not stupid, he had seen the way the man looked at him –they could already be in bed getting wild. He was a slave now, weaker, the other could take him whenever he wanted.

So why hadn’t he?

Maybe Grimmjow wanted something else from him that Ichigo hadn’t yet realized. Maybe this was just another mind game, a way to make him relax, and trust him before hurting him for real. Maybe he had misunderstood the Arrancars and they were not as bad. Maybe Grimmjow just wanted to help him, he had given him clothes, healed him, he was happily cooking for him, and...

Ichigo leaned his head down into the table’s surface and sighted.

Worrying was useless. There was nothing he could do now; he had no way of knowing the future or knowing if this man was an enemy or an ally. He was at his mercy now.

He could just wait to see what was going to happen, and decide then.

A clicking scrap sounded against the wood of the table in front of him and Ichigo rose his head sharply to see the blue-haired monster place a bowl in front of him.

Ichigo studied it frowning.

It looked _awful._ A soggy white thing floating in a red sauce with chunks of what Ichigo really hoped was meat.

“What is this?” he asked as the other sat in the chair in front of him.

“Lasagne” the Arrancar answered giving him a spoon too.

The Arrancar smiled at him obviously excited. _Way too fucking excited_. Was it poisoned? He had been cooking for an hour now, and he had been humming and ignoring him and the rest of the world the whole time as if he found the process fascinating. And now, as Ichigo took the spoon, the Arrancar looked at him expectantly, like a child waiting for the verdict from his father.

It was slightly cute. And creepy. Very very creepy. Ichigo tried not to think too much about it, overthinking was useless in a situation where he had no choice.

He dug the spoon on the bubbling thing and pulled it up.

A part of the meaty chunk fell down on the red sauce showing a blackened and burned side. Oh, Jesus. Ichigo forbade himself from thinking. Food was food and he needed to survive. He had also been years without trying lasagne. It didn’t really smelt that bad.

The put the spoon on his mouth.

He retched.

Standing from the chair, Ichigo ran to the bathroom without thinking. The Arrancar followed him immediately with big strides and panic on his eyes. Ichigo barely reached the bathroom before he threw up in the toilet, emptying an already empty stomach.

Oh fuck. That had to be the most horrible thing he had ever tasted. And he had been friends with Inoue.

 “What the hell was that?!” Ichigo shouted from his position over the toilet, knowing he was going to have nightmares about this thing. “Do you want to kill me or something?!”

The blue-haired man flinched.

“What? No, I just…” he passed a hand over his blue locks leaning against the door “Shit, I knew that grandma was crazy.”

“How can you fuck up a lasagne like that? It’s pasta! Even when you cook it wrong it tastes good!” he said as he stood wiping at his mouth.

The Arrancar finally frowned.

“Listen here you little shit, I tried okay, I just….”

“Failed miserably?” Ichigo quickly interrupted pushing him away from blocking the door “Shit, here, let me show you how it’s done.”

After throwing the still bubbling, poisonous concoction into the toilet and flushing it three times, Ichigo approached the little kitchen, arranged what was left of the ingredients, and still pissed and horrified by such an attempt against good old lasagne, he started to cook.

And just in case, he also picked another cooking knife.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo has a problem with knives. Grimmjow has a problem with personal space and social rules. And cooking too, but that didn't surrise anyone. His fraction is gonna end up killing him if he don't stop being a dick however.


	7. Proposals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I am sorry for the delay. I finished my studies, then went on a a trip and stuff happened. I want to say it won't happen again and that I will update every two weeks like before, but I will be moving to my family house on a week and there is no internet there and....I'm sorry. 
> 
> In any case, thanks a lot for waiting, I have tried to this this chapter a bit longer in compensation and hope you like it. Also thanks a lot to my dear beta, darling, you are saving my life.

 

“So, I am your slave now,” the human commented as he sat by the huge window overlooking the setting sun.

They had finished the dinner just a few minutes ago, and to Grimmjow’s embarrassment, the lasagne the man had made this second time had resembled the one of the creepy grandma had made much more. The asshole had been smirking and moaning as he ate the damn thing as if to piss him off. The fucker. But maybe cooking was a human thing, like birds flew or fishes could breathe underwater, maybe Grimmjow was not supposed to cook.  

At least that’s what Grimmjow had decided to think. 

Not being able to provide sustainment to even his slave was pathetic and a thing that was hurting his ego more than it should. He had been grumbling and frowning after that. He had been cleaning, organizing the disaster they had left in the kitchen and trying to delay a conversation he knew neither of them wanted to have. 

Until the boy had started it for him. 

Grimmjow sighed. 

Leaving the half-burned bowl where he had cooked the lasagne on the rag to dry, he finally walked towards the human and sat in front of him on the floor and next to the window. 

The view from his room was always pretty, but right now, it took his breath away. Sunsets on the Earth were stunning, an explosion of oranges and violets that contrasted so deeply with the emerald green of the mountains and its fog covered peaks. It also covered the man in front of him with a warm vibrant light, making his skin glow like bronze, and his already orange hair vibrate with the light. 

For a moment Grimmjow just wanted to admire such pure and striking beauty, bask in its warmth and memorize it by heart. He wanted to lay the man down over the rugs, kiss him slow and tender until he melted under him, until he gasped, moaned and called his name while the sun settled between the mountains. 

Which was weird because his kind never did it slow and tender. 

Maybe it was also a human thing. 

Getting out of his fantasies, Grimmjow tried to focus on the conversation ahead, and how to best explain his life and situation to the man. 

“Yes, you are my slave now,” he agreed, breaking the beauty from the moment to face the cruel reality of what was happening between them “I know your kind abolished slavery long ago, and that you consider it a bad thing, but in our society that is not the case.”

The man finally turned to look at him with ironic eyes. Brown chocolate eyes turning liquid honey with the light. 

“Our society was built upon power, Ichigo,” he continued, trying to explain such a crucial point, “The powerful rule. The weak die. That was how it was. The only way for the strong to protect the people they consider family and friends, the weak people they cherished, was through slavery. Through claiming and possession.”

The man looked at him frowning incredulously. “So you are…protecting me?”

“Yes,” he answered with what he hoped was a convincing and serious looking face. 

The man however just huffed as if Grimmjow was crazy. “Bullshit. That’s the stupidest shit I have ever heard.  And you don’t even know me; you had no reason to protect me”

Grimmjow couldn’t help but smirk. “Oh, believe me, I do.”

And again, that blush, the slight surprise on his eyes, and the following frown. Grimmjow had long ago memorized the sequence. It was so fun to tease him and watch such unguarded reactions. It was so different from Arrancars or other people he had met where everyone lied and schemed. 

“Can I go wherever I want?” The man asked instead, changing topics quickly. 

“No,” he answered with a sight “You can only stay on this ship”

“So, you are protecting me but taking away my freedom,” the man mocked with a disappointed smile. 

“I am taking away your freedom so  _ I could protect you, _ ” he explained again. “This world doesn’t belong to you humans anymore, it doesn’t follow your rules, Ichigo, it follows ours, and in our world, you will die within hours.”

The man still looked at him with hate in his eyes, with that fire and rebellion that Grimmjow had loved from the start. Not trusting, not believing a thing he said and just protecting for the chains. 

“No. You have killed half of humanity, and now you are telling me it was for our own good? Fuck you. I’m gonna scrape. I will see you all killed, monsters.”

“Like you killed Cirruci?” he answered casually. 

The man actually flinched. In a span of a second, the anger and hate disappeared from his eyes to be replaced with guilt and horror. The man looked away, his fists clenching tight with frustration in the shirt that Grimmjow had given him, the one that was just too big for his skinny body. 

Grimmjow sighed. 

He hadn’t wanted to bring up the topic up or give such a low blow, but it was a fact. Humans were too naïve, and this man was too pure and kind compared to them all. He had grown up protected, without knowing fear or pain, loved and cherished. Grimmjow was sure Cirruci had been his first kill, and he was even regretting it! Ichigo would not survive among Arrancars on his own, among monsters who had destroyed planets and entire civilizations, not now when he had been discovered. He needed protection. 

“Look, the collar you are wearing marks you as mine,” he told the orange-haired man who was still had that haunted look “No one will touch you as long as you wear it, and it would also serve me to find you if something bad happens. Don’t remove it. And I promise I will take care of you, you will have everything you need, I will try to make you happy.”

He tried to touch the man’s knee in a comforting gesture he had seen in those series from the human internet.  

The man, however, only pulled it back and glared at him. “But I won’t have my freedom. I will be your pet,” he spat out.

Grimmjow looked at him again dead serious. “I won’t discuss this, Ichigo. It is the only way, now accept it, and let’s go to bed.”

And just like that, the tension broke. The man stared at him with round surprised eyes, his whole face turned bright red, and his body tensing and pressing against the window as if trying to get away from him. 

“W-What?!” he asked. 

Grimmjow blinked and then smirked understanding instantly the man’s train of thoughts. 

“Go to bed  _ to sleep _ , Ichigo,” he clarified. “Unless you want to do anything else”

The blush spread until his ears and neck had turned also a vivid red. 

“No!” the man almost shouted. 

“Just what I thought,” he said standing, with that amused smile still in his face. 

“I’m not sleeping with you!” the man again protested. 

“It’s cute you think you can resist.” 

Turning, he walked straight to the bed, as the sun finally hid behind the mountains, and the world turned pitch black. With his powers, he made Ichigo stand too, and follow him towards his huge bed.  

“Asshole,” the man mumbled, resisting all the way up the bed. 

“Prude,” Grimmjow answered back. 

“Excuse me?” 

Grimmjow only smiled innocently and, as his mind made the man climb into the bed and get between the covers, he began to undress and ready himself for bed. 

Ichigo’s eyes instantly traveled over his exposed chest, over legs and his stomach, and then up to his neck and jaw to finally look away frowning. Grimmjow could feel the desire in the man’s body, the lust, the need, but he could also see the conflict in his emotions, the way he just seemed to turn paler as Grimmjow kept on undressing. 

‘One step forward at a time,’ he reminded himself.  _ ‘One. Fucking. Step’. _

 

…oOo…

The bed was soft and fluffy under him, like a cloud or a warm embrace from a mother welcoming him to dreamland. The sheets felt cold and nice against his skin, and they smelled clean and new. It was definitely the best bed Ichigo had ever slept in, and after so many years of sleeping on the ground or on a self-made bed of straw and torn clothes, it felt like something almost illegal. 

Yet Ichigo couldn’t sleep. 

The reasons were many, the first one being the turmoil still on his mind. The conversation with the Arrancar after dinner had answered some questions but had sparked many others. And now, with his body resting and no impending danger on the horizon, Ichigo could finally ponder them. 

His condition as a slave made his mind still rebel. Society and everything he had been taught rebelled against the idea, and screamed at him to escape. But the last years, seeing humanity fall, had changed those impressions and ideals. It was true that no human could face an Arrancar, they surpassed humans in strength, power, and ability. So, what if what Grimmjow had said was true? What if enslaving them was the only way to make humanity survive? Like a wolf protecting the rabbits from other wolves?

It could be right, and it could also be wrong. 

Ichigo still remembered how Cirruci had been treating the slaves she was supposed to protect. Grimmjow and his men had been clearly against that woman and such practices, and yet, Ichigo was sure there would be others like Cirruci on the universe, people who abused power and rejoiced in pain. So, the idea of slavery could be good and pretty in their society, the only answer they had found, but surely, they were executing it wrong if things like what had happened with Cirruci occurred. 

Therefore, Ichigo needed to escape. 

The problem was how. He was in a spaceship surrounded by people who could crush him in seconds, and away from everything he had ever known. To escape, he still needed some information about Arrancars and the spaceship, about this world he had entered and how to survive in it. 

That information might also serve him in the future if he wanted to finish the Arrancars’ civilization.

Doubt sparkled again in his mind. 

Did he really want to exterminate a whole race? Killing that woman, just one of them, even if she had been evil, had caused him guilt like nothing he had felt before. Would he be able to exterminate a whole race? Should he turn into a monster like the Arrancars? Should he start a massacre in revenge for another? Would his family be proud of him after that?

He wasn’t sure anymore.

For the first time in years, Ichigo doubted his resolve and the goal that had kept him alive all this long. 

Turning on the bed, Ichigo observed the profile of the man sleeping soundly next to him on top of the covers. He was half-naked, Ichigo was sure that on purpose to mess with him. Bastard. Still, Ichigo was finding it harder and harder to keep his hate towards him. Yes, he had enslaved him, he continued to physically manipulate him into doing things he didn’t want to do and had probably killed thousands with those same hands who had caressed him in the bathroom. Yet he had cooked for him, he had given him clothes, and despite his obvious intentions, he hadn’t touched Ichigo as they had shared the bed. 

Based on instinct, Ichigo could tell he wasn’t a bad guy, just incredibly stupid and with a total lack of ethics or proper behaviour. He was also still handsome. And hot. And fuck, he had an eight pack. Who had an eight pack on this world? Life was so unfair. 

He huffed.

Instinct told him he was safe with this man, but his rational mind was not so easy to convince. He just couldn’t trust him so easily. Some things the man said just were borderline psychotic or abusive, but he said them as if they were normal. Maybe it was their culture, maybe they were just too different this was destined to explode someday in their faces. 

Ichigo still wanted to punch him too for the manipulation thing. 

Just as Ichigo was wondering on how to take revenge on this whole ‘sharing a bed’ issue, the blue-haired Arrancar started to move on the bed next to him and gasp audibly. Ichigo instantly turned still, ready to spring and dig the knife he had hidden under the bed in the man’s ribs, but as minutes passed, it was clear the other male was only having a nightmare. 

More anguished breaths were heard, the blue, pretty brows frowned, and sweat started to appear over tanned and perfect skin. Yet Ichigo didn’t move, he didn’t make a move as to wake the other up, he just watched feeling…glad.

So Arrancars weren’t perfect killing machines, so they had flaws too, so they had regrets and fears. 

For a moment Ichigo felt the universe right itself again, karma kick these monsters back, and everything made sense. The blue-haired man started to thrash slightly between the covers, desperation on his face as he seemed to fight an invisible enemy. Frantic sounds filled the empty room and seemed to get more violent. 

Finally, the man woke up. 

Ichigo feigned sleep as the blue-haired monster sat on the bed visibly trembling and shaken. He passed a hand thought his now sweat-soaked hair, but the movement didn’t seem to relax him one bit. What had he been dreaming about that he looked so moved? What could scare an Arrancar so deeply?

For a while the Arrancar only gasped and breathed deeply as if trying to calm himself, then, slowly, he turned towards Ichigo as if to check if he was still there. 

For a few minutes, the other man watched him sleep. It would have been hella creepy, if the whole thing hadn’t had calmed the man for some reason. As if finding Ichigo there, some company, relaxed him. Ichigo understood the feeling to some extent, he had also found it calming to have his wolves next to him in dark nights. 

Finally, the man sighed and cursed, more relaxed. Tucking Ichigo under the bedcovers like a mother tucking a child, he stood up and approached the window where they had been having the conversation before. 

Ichigo observed him while remaining still unmoving.

The little light from the half-moon outlined the silhouette of a strong and proud warrior with his skin soft and unbroken from any scar as if no mortal had ever managed to harm him. He was perfection. From his feet to his long strong legs or the hard curve of his shoulders, he looked like a man who knew his power and how to use it. He resembled the knights from legends, confident and reliable and willing to risk everything from his ideals. He looked like a hero, awake at night and ready to save the innocents.

The kind of man Ichigo would have admired long ago. 

Yet, as the Arrancar picked a book and sat on one of the sofas next to window to read, Ichigo couldn’t help but notice the tiredness of the warrior, the little drag of his feet against the floor, the way his eyes still looked tense and dark, as if something huge was resting on his shoulders and he was tired of carrying it. 

Ichigo wondered about that look. Then he thought about the nightmare the man had, about his new life and about slaves. He thought about many, many things, and finally, after one of the worst days of his life, he finally fell asleep. 

 

…oOo…

The next morning Ichigo woke up feeling as rested, and relaxed as he had ever felt before. The bed had to be a magical artifact or use some kind of alien technology because Ichigo had never felt as revitalized by a night of sleep. 

After getting out of the suspicious bed and moving around trying to make his muscles work again. Ichigo ate some of the Cheerios from the box Grimmjow provided as he sat by the window. They hadn’t exchanged any words, not flirting or insults, nor even commented about last night's conversation or plans for the future. 

Ichigo had been half asleep and the man was clearly busy. 

However, as he finished breakfast, cleaned his face and finally woke up, he had found himself with nothing to do. The Arrancar had kept on working, and Ichigo hadn’t wanted to interrupt him or talk to him.

So, taking his word, he had gotten out of the room and had begun to explore the ship. 

At first, he had been looking for some way of escaping, information about the Arrancars, but after a while, he had realized that the ship was just too big to explore it in a day. 

On the lower levels of the spaceship, the different soldiers and their families seemed to make their living, and there, Ichigo had seen for the first time in his life, children and old Arrancars mix with the huge and handsome soldiers. They were all pretty, old and young, women and men, pretty and luring, with the black uniforms and white smiles, but they lacked the danger and sex appeal that their leader had.

They didn’t have Grimmjow’s power nor presence. 

Ichigo had felt the anxiety come get him nonetheless. The children had brought back memories of his two little sisters, the families living happily and sharing moments on the corridors, laughing and joking, had brought him only pain and loss. 

He had run away from those corridors as quick as he had arrived.

On the upper levels, however, there were less people and the rooms seemed to be reserved for the higher ranks. Hard looking soldiers had glared at him as he walked among them exploring the place. Ichigo still had quickly resigned himself to those levels since, apart from the lack of families, there seemed to be less people here and they were more silent. 

On these levels, however, there were also more interesting things. Ichigo had discovered a library full of weird books, hundred maps and folders like the ones Grimmjow kept in his room, and he had discovered weaponry where he had exchanged his cutlery knife for a real dagger that had looked dangerous enough, just in case. He also found a little garden full of plants and edible herbs, bathing rooms for whole families or brigades, and finally, the training rooms where a few soldiers had been training and where Ichigo had found Grimmjow’s captains. 

The strange Arrancar called Di Roy had saluted him right away upon entrance from across the room and given him a smile, but the tall blonde who had been cleaning his room yesterday only grimaced at his presence. 

“What are you doing here,  _ Grimmjow’s new pet _ ?” Yylfordt had commented as the pair approached. 

And just like that, Ichigo had wanted to punch him. Instead, he smiled at the man. 

“Ignore him” Di Roy had said stopping in front of him, and touching Ichigo’s arm in welcome “He is just jealous that Grimmjow is not inviting him to bed”

“What the fuck?” the blond instantly shouted “No, I’m not! Grimmjow is a psycho, who would want to share his bed?” He faked a shiver. 

Di Roy rolled his eyes dramatically and smiled at Ichigo once again “What are you doing here? Want to join a session? What weapon do you use?”

“Yeah, what are you doing here, pet?” The blond guy again mocked “I would think Grimmjow would have you chained to the bed with how hard he had been pursuing you. I’m surprised you can even walk”

Ichigo just blinked trying not to get to answer to the provocation “Why? You talk from experience?” 

Oops. Failed. 

The blond guy turned bright red, and suddenly, he unsheathed the twin blades he had been carrying around on his waist. 

“That’s it. You are dead, pretty boy”

Ichigo lifted a brow, amused. He was even easier to provoke than Grimmjow.  

“Yylfordt,” the other Arrancar warned, putting himself between Ichigo and the pissed blond. 

“He insulted me!” the blond protested.

“Yeah, you made it just too easy,” the other said rolling his eyes again.

“What?”

Ichigo walked back and retreated from the room smiling. He didn’t usually back up from fights, but to be truthful he wasn’t in the mood today. Walking among elegant, soft and creamy corridors, Ichigo continued his exploration. 

 

…oOo…

Grimmjow had spent the night researching, and he knew now that he was ready. Before Ichigo, he had spent his sleepless nights doing paperwork, insomnia was only a problem if you allowed it to be, so he had filled the weekly informs and documents Aizen demanded and had checked on the ship’s affairs, always taking care of his people. Last night, however, as sleep eluded him again, he had continued his study of humans as had become his new hobby. 

Last time however the topic had been slightly different from his usual reads.

Human courtship was a thing that had amused yet horrified him from the beginning since it looked to be over complicated and useless. Grimmjow just couldn’t understand how humans could spend so many months and years beating around the bush and losing time just to do something so simple as mate. Arrancars were so much more practical on that aspect. If they were horny, they fucked, and that was it. He hoped he could accelerate things with his own human, or at least perform one of the quickest rituals he had seen and learned about on the internet.

The ring thing had seemed a good enough option. The couples always kissed and started making out right after.

So, that morning after the human had engulfed his morning meal -a thing called cereals that hadn’t looked much better than the lasagne but that been at least more colourful- the man had decided to go explore his ship, and Grimmjow had had time to prepare. 

Asking his soldiers for help again, he had decorated the whole room with flowers as he has seen in the stories from a guy called Disney. He hadn’t known Ichigo favorites, and so he had decided to use as many as he could find. Soft yellow roses, delicate white tulips, and creamy pink magnolias were spread over the white huge bed invitingly. From floor to ceilings, the rest of the room had been turned into a garden covered in hundreds of different flowers from all shapes and colours. Margaritas sprouted over lilies on the shelves and tables, jars of clear water were filled with lotus flowers and hibiscus on the floor, while cherry blossom branches and wisterias hung from the ceilings. 

Everywhere you looked around there were plants and flowers, a paradise of nature. Grimmjow hadn’t understood at first why humans would give each other the dying parts of plants, but as his soldiers finally left the room with an amused smirk on their eyes, Grimmjow couldn’t help but wonder. 

It all looked amazing. 

Then, he had groomed himself. He had taken a bath, combed his hair back in what Nelliel had once called his ‘killing look’, and wore his best uniform, the one he used to train his soldier and was comfortable and nice. 

He still hoped he wouldn’t be wearing it for long.

Then, preparing the last details and finishing some more duties as the leader of the ship, he waited for the human to return. 

In the end, it took the human three whole hours to return, and when he did so he looked kind of disappointed as if he hadn’t found what he had been looking for or was just tired. However, as he finally stepped into the room and observed the bunch of flowers covering every corner and surface, the look had disappeared to be replaced by plain surprise. 

He looked soft and warm like the flowers, still dressing his oversized shirt, and his messy orange hair.

“What happens? Why are there suddenly so many flowers?”

Grimmjow smiled pleased. Standing from the desk where he had been finishing some paperwork, he approached the human completely sure that this,  _ fucking finally,  _ would work, and that they would be fucking on the bed in no time. 

Stopping in front of the human and kneeling in front of him elegantly, he pulled the little box on one of his pockets, opened it and repeated the words all the humans in the video had said. 

“Ichigo, would you marry me?”

Then he waited for the kiss and tears. 

Only they never came, and as he looked up at the man, he could only see a pair of horrified and shocked eyes staring back at him as if he was some kind of atrocity that shouldn’t exist. 

“No.”

Grimmjow blinked “Excuse me?”

“No!”

The man stepped back and looked as if he was about to run away. Grimmjow got up frowning and hid the box away confused. Had he done something wrong? Maybe the wrong flowers? This had never happened on the videos he had seen. Was his human broken or something?

“Why not?” he asked puzzled, approaching the man who again stepped backward colliding with the door and trying to escape. 

“Are you kidding me?! ‘ _ Why not?! _ ’”

“But I got the ring, and the flowers”

“What the fucking fuck?  _ W-what is wrong with you?!  _ I’m not marrying you.”

Grimmjow finally corralled Ichigo between the door and his body. His eyes were looking at him aghast, as if Grimmjow had grown a second head. He seemed to be everything but happy and glad about the offer. He definitely didn’t seem to be about to kiss him. 

It was pissing him off. More than necessary. He tried a different last approach. 

“Please?” he asked. 

“No.”

“I will be gentle, I promise, I know this will be your first time,” he said genuinely, his body pressing close against the man, their faces mere inches apart. Ichigo still smelled of mountain rain and wilderness, his body felt small and warm against his, it made Grimmjow’s mouth water.  

“W-what?” the man shrieked. 

“You want it too, I know it,” he said pressing their bodies close, sneaking a leg between the man’s legs and pressing up and firm against all males weak spot. “I see how you look at me.”

Ichigo’s eyes grew huge. 

“Wait, what are you even…?”

Grimmjow finally lost his patience. 

He had been hoping for wild monkey sex on the bed, at least a kiss, but the human just wouldn’t cooperate. He even got the flowers, the rings and he had waited, researched, and played nice. 

So he kissed the man himself taking a kiss that was rightfully his. 

No more beating around the bush. 

He kissed Ichigo deep and hungry, nothing like the chaste and pay full kisses he had given him yesterday just to mess with him or the sad attempt from the lake. This one was for real. With lips, teeth, and frustration. 

Grimmjow pressed the man against the door roughly, his control snapping, pressing their bodies firmly together and not allowing him to escape. One of his hands traveled to the man’s thin waist holding him close, the other pressed against the door at the side of Ichigo’s head, trapping him completely. 

Then he delved in. Licking the man’s soft lips with relish, nibbling at his tongue playfully and just taking everything he could. For a moment, he lost himself in a kiss like no one he had ever tasted. He felt his blood burn turn to melted lava in his veins; his head spun and his whole world almost collapsed with just one kiss. 

This could become an addiction way too quickly. He had never tasted something so luscious, and Grimmjow understood that he could spend the rest of his life just doing this. Kissing these lips, biting and claiming and taking everything he could. 

Then Ichigo  _ answered _ . 

Without Grimmjow forcing him, without threatening or coercing him, but just as angry, just as pissed and desperate as Grimmjow.  

Ichigo moved his mouth against his and bit him back hard, he nibbled and sucked as if he wanted to taste Grimmjow’s own soul thought his mouth. Grimmjow felt his whole body harden. Pressing the other against the door even harder, until the man’s weight was supported by Grimmjow’s leg between his thighs, he tilted his head back with the hand close to his hair and mouthed at the other’s lips leaving them tender and soft and red. The younger man nipped at Grimmjow’s lips back, unable to draw blood but still trying to make him raw, to leave a mark and claim him in his own way.

It drove Grimmjow crazy to no end.

In a pause to take air into their lungs, he grazed their lips together, a soft slow caress, sore and sensitized skin against bruised and red. The man sighed under him, his hands raising up to grip at his back and press him even closer. His hips moved, rubbing himself against Grimmjow’s leg and getting harder. 

Grimmjow would have kissed him again, deep and tender, transforming the initial anger into something beautiful and pretty. He would have gotten rid of the other’s shirt with care, bitten and marked the other’s body from head to his toes with lips teeth and tongue, walked him to the bed so they could finally finish what had begun long ago in the mountains. 

But the punch in the face prevented him from going any further. 

Grimmjow, losing his equilibrium, fell to the floor on his ass. For a moment he just stayed there not understanding what had happened or where Ichigo had gone. 

Then he lifted his eyes and paled. 

The man was red, his lips tender and bruised, his hair a mess, and a very noticeable erection could be seen on his pants. He was also looking at him with murderous eyes and clenched fist. He kept on opening and closing his mouth as if he wanted to scream at him but didn’t know where to fucking start. 

After a second, the man just screamed. An angry and frustrated and pissed sound. One he had never heard from him.

Then he turned and walked out of the room, closing the door with a bang. 

Grimmjow flopped down on the floor observing the flowers on the ceiling. What the hell has that been? He never lost control like that. He had wanted the man’s consent, so why had he forced the kiss? And the man had seemed to like it, he had answered so, why had he run away so suddenly? 

He sighed. His plan for doing this fast seemed to have failed, and so he would have to perform one of the slow rituals.  He also needed to apologize. Fuck. At least he had finally kissed and touched the man. At least he knew now the feast that was waiting for him. 

He smiled. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's say that Grimmjow is trying to be romantic without noting shit about romance... The poor thing


	8. Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I'm sorry for taking so long, I want to update this fic every two weeks more or less, but with the the holidays, the schedul have been moving around and I haven't been able, sorry. Secondly and as always, thanks a lot to dear Mykko_Chan for helping me so much with correcting stuff, I probably have to comepnsate you some way after so much trauma. 
> 
> Finally, there is a WARNING-VIOLENCE on the first scene of this chapter so be carefull. In any case, thanks as always for the comments and kudos, I hope you all enjoy this one.

The two Arrancar Captains were still talking and joking in the windowless training room when Ichigo reentered the place with confident steps. Yylfordt was smirking like a bastard, leaning against one of the wooden walls and observing the men fight. Di Roy however, seemed to be actually busy instructing two of the sturdy soldiers on some kind of martial-arts move, the three of them practicing on one of the mats.

Apart from them, however, there were only a few soldiers training in pairs on the centre and a few more men working with the weights in a relaxed manner as they talked. The whole room resembled one of the dojos where Ichigo had studied when young, with all that wood and black floors, the slogans in weird languages and the weapons hanging on the walls.

The whole setting helped his angry mind set into its right frame to fight, because, right now,  _ he needed to smash things. _

The anger and rage had been accumulating since he had been captured, the mocking commentaries from Cirruci and the others, the frustration of the situation, or the convivence with an asshole, it had been all mounting up and Ichigo had been just ready to explode.

_ And then, Grimmjow had had the fucking marvelous idea of kissing and proposing him. _

To say he was angry was the fucking understatement of the century.

Yes, he was fucking angry at the blue-haired Arrancar for kissing him, for trapping him, for taking his freedom away, and thinking Ichigo was now his pet. He was also angry at the situation, at the whole injustice of his life…but mostly he was angry with himself. Because yeah, the asshole had kissed him, but it had been Ichigo who had allowed the whole thing to last, who had answered him, and who had fucking liked the damn kiss. The best fucking kiss he had ever received in his life.

Maybe it had been due to the loneliness, he had spent so many years apart from other human beings that he might be craving physical contact, and touch or pleasure. He was also young, a healthy male in his mid-twenties who had needs and hormones that might have played a huge part in the experience. Or maybe it was because Grimmjow was the hottest bastard he had seen in his life, that it had felt so good, and… No. That wasn’t it. There could be no excuse. The fact was that he had surrendered, that he had enjoyed the experience, and that for a moment, he had wanted more.

And that was wrong.

Arrancars were the enemy, they had killed his family and enslaved humanity,  _ and Ichigo had just forgotten it all that thanks to a stupid kiss.  _ It made him want to scream, to smash things again, to let out all that accumulated anger and doubts and confusion inside him and just clean himself out.

So, he approached Yylfordt, the bastard who was pretending he has not seen him yet. Meanwhile, all the other eyes on the room followed him as he crossed the room, the soldiers, the fighting pairs and even Di Roy, while an awkward silence spread over the training area and the whole room.   

“Let’s fight,” Ichigo said to the man as he stopped before him. An order, not a question.

The captain, as expected, blinked at Ichigo and rose an eyebrow as if Ichigo had lost his brains. “Ha? Are you stupid?”

And so Ichigo didn’t think, he just pulled strength from that rage boiling inside of him, raised a fist, and smashed it against the male Arrancar's face. It hurt. As if he had punched a wall of rock, but the adrenaline and anger made it all fade away, that and the fact that his crazy karate teacher had made them break wooden planks when young. He knew how to deal with that pain.

He stepped back feeling much better but not yet relaxed. Yylfordt’s face, however, was one of surprise, as if he hadn’t expected the punch. But as Ichigo felt back in a defensive posture, his eyes turned slightly homicidal.

The real fight started just seconds after.

It had been a long time since Ichigo had fought hand to hand, and since then, his body had grown and developed making him spend a few precious moments getting used to it all again. Fighting, however, was a skill that his body had never been able to forget, and with his new reflexes from hunting and a few years of living in the dangerous wilderness, he found himself moving easily between unpracticed moves. Knowing that his opponent also healed way too quickly and had some kind of skin protection against weapons, Ichigo didn’t contain himself. 

He let all out and even played dirty.

Yylfordt was a good fighter too. As an Arrancar, he punched hard and fast, almost too fast for Ichigo to follow, but he was obviously no expert in hand to hand sparring. As Ichigo had predicted, Arrancars relied too much on their strange powers and weapons and, therefore, in this kind of fights, they were just too easy to read and counterattack.

Dodging a punch to his face that would have probably broken bone, Ichigo turned to gain momentum and delivered a high kick to the man’s face making him lose balance. Then, he gripped his blond head as the man felt, and, getting on his knees, he smashed it against the floor. Something crunched between his fingers, and blood appeared on the ground, but he just rose the man’s head again and smashed it against black tiles once more.

It felt sick but it also felt good. He was human  _ but he wasn’t weak, he was no easy prey, he was no pet. _

Smack, smack, smack.

Finally, between blows, Yylfordt seemed to regain some brain and tried to push him away using his inhuman strength. Ichigo allowed it. And his mind shifted from his childhood Karate to the Judo and Aikido from his high school days. They rolled on the floor, but again, using the momentum from the Arrancar’s grab, Ichigo ended up on top of them both, and this time, with his legs also pressed around the man’s throat dangerously.

He squeezed with no mercy.

And Yylfordt, with his face covered in blood, and with his healing abilities still unable to heal his head that fast, panicked.  _ And lost the fight _ . 

Forgetting his powers and even the two weird blades he was still carrying in his panic, the man struggled against Ichigo’s hold, fighting for air. He dug sharp nails on Ichigo’s tights drawing blood, he squirmed trying to get free, but Ichigo didn’t allow him even a gasp, and using one of the most basics Judo holds in existence, he won a fight against a deadly Arrancar.

Getting up from the floor, rearranging his clothes, and forgetting the unconscious Yylfordt on the ground, he turned to the other soldiers with a smile on his face and a storm in his eyes. Intent on proving to each one of them  _ how weak humans were _ .

“Next.”

 

…oOo…

Grimmjow walked the halls of his ship listening to the commotion spread between his people down the long corridors. Apparently, a human had lost control and was cleaning the floor with the high-ranking soldiers, and his people were smiling and running to see the spectacle, after all, not every day they could see such a bizarre fight and have some laughs at the poor victims.

Grimmjow knew that that stupidly strong human would be his slave, Ichigo, and although he was glad that the human was slowly being accepted by his Arrancar comrades and that the mocking comments were coming to an end, he just couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the situation. 

He had wanted to approach the human, earn his trust and yeah, have some fun with him in bed, but above it all, he had wanted someone outside the huge Arrancar society he could completely trust, someone who wasn’t tainted by their corruption and evil ways. However, no matter how much he tried, for every step forward he took, the human seemed to run a galaxy back and away from him.

Ichigo had answered the kiss, they had slept together, seen each other naked, and had maintained non-threatening conversations a few times, but it still had all served for nothing. Ichigo’s face when he had left the room had been one of absolute hate and horror, just like at the beginning. The gap between them was just too big to be closed so easily and quickly.

And so Grimmjow didn’t follow his people to see the  _ amazing _ fight and his slave going nuts, but he turned exactly in the opposite direction towards the deeper parts of the ship where there were no windows or breathtaking landscape to distract him from dark thoughts. 

After walking some more and turning several corners in the labyrinth that his ship was, he finally stepped into one of the small communication rooms that were always plunged in a deep blackness, and who had a single and lonely chair in its midst. From rooms like this he had spoken with Aizen, and he had held meetings in which the destiny of planets had been decided, from rooms like this one he could talk with people from his mother planet or any other part of the galaxy.

Sitting in the chair, the device that was the whole room turned on, and reciting a special code outloud, he called a man he hadn’t spoken too in several months.

Edrad appeared in front of him an instant later, and with him came the eternal moon, the dunes and the empty air from their mother planet, the hologram filling the blackness of the room making him feel as if he was there with his friend, walking the lonely dunes and feeling the cool winds. It made Grimmjow tense, a pain in his chest expand, and distaste curl his lips to show fangs. His memories from that place were all twisted, covered in blood, and driven by survival instincts. 

He hated his homeland.

Yet, from the happy expression Edrad was wearing, his few extra kilos, and the two little redheaded gremlins attached to his shoulder, the now ex-soldier and first-time dad, didn’t share Grimmjow’s distaste. The huge man had been the best explorer from their planet, he had specialized in the study of living things -a biologist as humans called them- and thanks to his discoveries, their society had been able to develop new technologies and weapons never seen before. He had been a coveted man, and even Aizen had offered him a position among the Espada, but Edrad had always given his loyalty to Grimmjow. At least until two years ago, when the huge man had asked him to leave so he could begin a family of his own.

“Grimm!” said his childhood friend, the man that, along with Yylfordt, had shared his beginnings, “Fuck, it was time you showed up. How are you, asshole?”

Grimmjow couldn’t help but smile at the huge ass man alongside his two tiny daughters. The despair disappeared for a moment thanks to one of the things he was prouder of in his life. No many Arrancars could built a family and raise their offspring, but thanks to Grimmjow’s protection more and more of his people were beginning to do so 

“I’m fine Ed, sorry for not calling sooner,” He told the huge man “I’m sorry for interrupting your time with your cubs, but I just…need advice with a thing.”

“Tell me.” The man instantly said, shooing the two girls away so he could talk alone with one of the most powerful men in the universe.

The two girls obediently ran away after sending Grimmjow a curious last glance, their small feel leaving identical footprints in the sand as they left, and the pale moonlight turning their skin a strange white. Hollows they were called, children of their world, empty of the bloodlust and hunger and pain, their powers not yet developed and with innocence and happiness shining in their small eyes.

“I have found…something I want, Ed.” Grimmjow began vaguely, not really knowing how to approach the topic. They had all been soldiers, taught men, they never talked about these kind of things.

“It’s one of those plants you collect?” the redhead man asked. “I told you they won’t survive out of their habitat.”

“No, it’s not that” Grimmjow answered irritated “It’s a partner, I have found a partner, and since you already have a family, I was wondering…”

Grimmjow trailed off, making a vague gesture with his hand and feeling mortified.

The other man smiled on the transmission wickedly “Oooh.”

Grimmjow instantly wanted to Zero him. “Shut up, asshole. He is human. And he hates the sight of me.”

The other man on the screen instantly stopped the mockery and his smile disappeared “Oh. Oh, well, shit Grimm, that is going to be difficult.”

“No shit, as if I haven’t noticed!” he said sarcastically. He didn’t like to be rough with his people, especially his captains, but he was just frustrated, he didn’t know what else to do. “I have cooked for him, I even did the marriage ritual as that stupid Internet suggested, but it accomplished nothing! I swear that the universe is playing a joke on me and someone out there is laughing their ass off”. 

In front of him Edrad, however, frowned “Internet? Don’t trust that thing too much Grimm. From what I learned it was full of lies and fake things, there were also these things called millennials which twisted everything and liked to mess with people’s minds”

“Then what do I do?!” he asked his friend. “My ways don’t work, his ways don’t work, the internet is stupid, what the hell do I need to do?”

Edrad looked at him surprised for a moment and then looked away amused but sad. “It’s not that easy Grimm, we have killed their race, destroyed their civilization, and the those that have survived are not much better. You knew what Cirruci or Aporro do. Getting over all that, ignoring all that genocide and death…I think you are asking too much of him. It might be impossible for him to forget all of what has happened and trust you”

“I told him I would protect him, I said he would suffer no harm from me,” he complained.

“Those promises hold a deep meaning in our society Grimm, and none of us made them lightly, but for your human, it would be different. He doesn’t know the meaning of it all and he also has no reason to trust you, for all he knows you can be lying to him, and this could all just be another trick to cage him in.”

“Then what do I do?”

“Prove it?” Edrad suggested shrugging. “Show him you mean it, show him you will be there and what it all means, that he would have to suffer no more, show him you are telling the truth.”

“…And if it doesn’t work?”

“I don’t know,” the big man said with a sigh. “That’s why I’m asking you if you are completely sure you want him as a partner? He might never be able to trust you that deeply, Grimm.”

“I’m sure,” Grimmjow said with conviction. 

It had to be those deep brown eyes, that tanned skin, and that happy, uncaring smile. That warmth and colourful tones, the only ones able to make him forget the cold of an eternal night and lonely dunes.

“Then, that’s my advice.”

 

…oOo…

Ichigo felt tired, numb and relaxed. Several parts of body ached from blows and punches, and he knew that he would soon be covered in bruises, but for some reason, he just wanted to smirk and laugh. The fights had been nice, liberating and welcomed. He had missed fighting so much, the thrill, the adrenaline, the constant desire of breaking, smashing and coming out on top of an opponent. It was a freeing experience.

Spread out on the floor of the training room, over the thin black mat, he observed the wood ceiling feeling purified, with no dark emotion looming behind his eyes, and no more anger burning his veins. It had all come out and had been punched into his opponents leaving him empty and healed.

He couldn’t say the same for the people he had fought.

Looking to the side he observed crowd of people leaving now that the combat was over, and the five men who were still recovering along their still unconscious captain. They had all been obviously weaker than Yylfordt, soldiers to their captain, but they had also been more prepared for him with the initial surprise and prejudices dissipating after he had beaten their captain. They had gone with no restraint against him, using their powers, weapons and everything they had. A stimulating fight  _ that Ichigo had still won _ .

It still makes him want to smirk haughtily.

Fuelled by the rage and a need to prove himself, Ichigo had kept on punching and kicking no matter what. He had felt it clearly sometimes, how the men had tried to numb his mind or stop his blows with their mental tricks, but the rage had cut through it all smoothly, and Ichigo had just shaken them off and kept on going. Their strength and weapons had been turned against them thanks to Ichigo’s training in several martial arts, Aikido, Self-Defense, Judo, he had been used to fight enemies bigger and stronger than him, experienced and with weapons, and so he had had no mayor trouble facing the surprised soldiers. He didn’t understand how he had managed to win so fast and easily this time, but compared to Grimmjow’s mind games and his raw stupidly huge strength, it had been easy to get them all off.

So Ichigo sat on the floor feeling stronger and capable again. In control for a moment.

He had been ignoring the blue-haired man who had stood observing his last fight from behind the crowd way too intently, but when he saw the handsome Arrancar approach, he knew his little free time was over. Would the General scream at him for beating his crew? Would he punish him? Kiss him again?

Ichigo trembled in anticipation at that last thought and hated himself again for it.

Grimmjow however just stopped a few feet away from him and made a little gesture with his head. “Follow me, I need to show you something”

And just like that, Grimmjow walked away. There was no anger, no smirk, no threat. Nothing. It was as if he didn’t care about what happened to his soldiers. The attitude made Ichigo go on full alert, because Grimmjow had suddenly turned cold, serious and distant, as if his good humour and mocking behaviors had disappeared for some reason only to be replaced by ‘the general’, the deadly monster Ichigo had thought him to be from the beginning.

Ichigo knew the change had been his fault, and it annoyed and unnerved him for some reason.

It also made heat gather in Ichigo’s belly because that attitude turned the stupid asshole extra hot. There was just something about those  glares, the arrogance and non-caring gestures. Even the way he walked away from Ichigo seemed different, confident and sexier, with long strong legs, that nice ass, and those huge wide shoulders that rippled with the muscles beneath. Ichigo sighed. He couldn’t deny anymore that he was attracted to the Arrancar physically.  _ But that meant nothing _ , everyone would be attracted to a being that looked the way Grimmjow did.

Fucking Arrancars.

He stood up from the mat and followed the man in silence while trying to avoid looking at him as much as possible.

They walked the corridors, up to the level of their rooms, but to a new part of the ship Ichigo hadn’t yet explored. The atmosphere here seemed different, more reverent and protected, silent and dark with no one crossing their path. The windowless, creamy colored corridors slowly gave space to rough unpolished stone and dark wood, and the luminous, relaxing areas disappeared into mysterious and eerie looking spaces.

Finally, after a long and silent walk, the blue-haired man stopped before a closed door, and paused before the security panel for a scan. The door opened smoothly a second after, a white light appearing over the surface, and Grimmjow signalled Ichigo to enter. Then he tapped another last code on the door security panel, and after he was done, he got in after Ichigo before the door closed again. 

For a moment, it felt like stepping into another world.

Suddenly there was a suffocating humidity and wild vegetation that turned the poorly lit room even darker. Palm trees and bushes grew to the high ceiling, while a path of black stones disappeared among the vegetation and puddles on the ground. Sounds of wild animals, soft rain and nature mingled everywhere making Ichigo believe he had just entered some jungle or another different world.  

He was about to turn to Grimmjow and ask where the hell they were, when something moved between the shadows in front of them.

Ichigo stepped back instantly, years of living among nature allowing him to recognize a fellow predator almost instantly, but as he moved back, he collided with Grimmjow’s chest and stopped short. He held his breath suddenly paralyzed. The predator advanced on them, sealth and glowing eyes on the shadows. But just as Ichigo was going to start hyperventilating, Grimmjow’s arms circled his waist languidly, almost as if the Arrancar was trying to assure him everything was fine.

Which was utterly bullshit, in his opinion, because it was obviously not.

The shadow moved again, bushes parted, and just before Ichigo’s eyes, a huge black cat exited the foliage. It was a panther.  _ A magnificent panther _ . Its black fur glowed in the dim light and  green eyes focused on them with intelligence too sharp for Ichigo’s liking. It was huge too, her head reached Ichigo’s waist and her huge paws left  massive prints in the mud that spoke of a deadly power and strength. 

She walked towards them with a slow predatory elegance, confident and proud, almost giving Ichigo a final heart attack.

“She is Pantera,” Grimmjow whispered against Ichigo’s ear, his breath giving Ichigo goosebumps along his neck and arms, and making his suddenly way too aware of their sudden closeness. “She is my pet.”

The huge animal finally neared them and sniffed the air curiously. She seemed to recognize Grimmjow’s scent, and purred happily at him, rubbing her head against the Arrancar’s leg and circling around their bodies as a cat would do.

Ichigo didn’t dare to move.

Releasing a hand from Ichigo’s waist, Grimmjow patted her head lovingly, his fingers sinking into the thick fur and his nails scratching her behind the ears. The wild animal purred even louder in contentment and turned her head this and that way so Grimmjow could get to the nicest  areas. 

The treatment went on for almost a minute, but then, having had enough, the huge panther shook Grimmjow’s hand off and turned to look at Ichigo. And Ichigo, not knowing what else to do, did the same thing Grimmjow had done. He lifted  a hand to scratch at those soft-looking ears, but suddenly, Pantera growled at him. Ichigo flinched, prepared for a bite that would tear tendons, but Pantera just stepped back and disappeared again into the bushes.

“Sorry,” Grimmjow said still in a that low husky voice against his ear. “She is kind of territorial”

“Why did you take me here?” Ichigo asked using the same tone as Grimmjow not knowing what else would be lurking in the shadows of this room.

“I wanted you to see the difference.”

“What difference?”

Grimmjow’s fingers tightened against his stomach, over the now wet shirt Ichigo was carrying, and above that place becoming tight and hot thanks to their proximity. They were hugging, Ichigo noticed, in a dark place, alone. The Arrancar’s breath ghosted against his neck, those hands were just so close to…

“The difference between a slave and a pet” Grimmjow cut in, waking Ichigo from his daydream. “Pantera is like a knife, she is pretty, deadly and you have to take care of it, but it’s still a knife. A thing you can have and love, but that might not love you back.”

Grimmjow’s lips ghosted over Ichigo’s nape and Ichigo  couldn’t help but tremble. He still had that kiss imprinted on his skin, those hands holding him close, that stupid attraction confusing his mind. He didn’t dare to move an inch, as if Grimmjow was another kind of predator he needed to be careful around.

“But you are different, Ichigo. Slaves are so much more, you are partners, friends, family, people that can become indispensable for us. That’s what I want you to be.”

Ichigo shook his head, trying to focus on the conversation. Lulled by the darkness and the other presence behind his back, by the lust and desire in his blood that were just so wrong. 

“No, we are the same, chained animals wanting freedom” he repeated once more.

Grimmjow sighed from behind him. The Arrancar rested his head on Ichigo’s shoulder and hugged him impossibly tighter. Ichigo said nothing, did nothing. He had the feeling his message was finally getting across and he needed to close this part of their relationship. They weren’t going to be friends, they weren’t going to be lovers no matter how much his own cock wanted it to be otherwise.

One of Grimmjow’s hands suddenly rose from Ichigo’s waist to his neck until strong, callused fingers traced the thin material of his collar, the reminder of Ichigo’s new position.

“I could take it off,” Grimmjow finally conceded, his voice husky against his ear, low and so fucking arousing. Ichigo however tensed at the words and implication. “But I would do it only if I’m sure you won’t run away”

Ichigo shivered.

This had been what he had been looking for. He had wanted the other to give him his freedom again, free will, some control. He would still need to gain the Arrancar’s trust, show him how reliable and well  behaved he was, but he could do that, he could lie and do what needed to be done so he could get back his freedom and escape again into the mountains.

“Okay,” he whispered back. Truce.

Chuckling, Grimmjow playfully bit his ear and Ichigo had to suppress a deep embarrassing moan, his body impossibly aroused and sensitive with the humidity, adrenaline and the rock-solid body behind him.

So, taking advantage of the moment and their position, he smashed his elbow into the Arrancar’s stomach making him gasp and double over. The hug finished after that and as they shared a few more insults and threats, they exited the room knowing something fundamental had changed between them.

 

…oOo…

Grimmjow leaned back on his chair and looked at the pile of papers he still needed to sign and send to Aizen. Stupid Shawlong, he sure was taking his sweet revenge to a whole new level. Grimmjow supposed he shouldn’t have broken those aircrafts. Ulquiorra was arriving tomorrow too and there were just too many things to do. But not now.  _ He was done for now _ .

Pulling back from work, he looked at the boy who had been rolling on the floor between cushions for half an hour and was looking hella bored at one of his books.

Grimmjow couldn’t help but smile at the picture.

The boy was relaxed, completely slumped between the huge cushions, under his weird plants and next to the window, as if he was used to doing that every afternoon. He was still wearing Grimmjow’s oversized shirt, the one that had turned wet and revealing in the jungle, and the one that was now rolling up his belly to reveal a lean stomach and tan warm skin that Grimmjow wanted to bite. Even his hair was a messy chaos of orange strands after the fighting, and the way he kept trying to shove it away from his eyes every ten minutes was making Grimmjow impossibly hard. He was covered in little bruises and injuries too, they worried but they also made him felt proud, he knew those little aches would be a warrior prize and that Ichigo would wear them with pride. 

It all made him want to stand up and go to him again, hug him between the fluffy creamy cushions and pet him and kiss him again until the other melted beneath him.

But he couldn’t do that, not yet, maybe never. Edrad’s words kept on repeating in his mind, and he knew he needed to find a way to prove to the boy he was telling the truth, but how? He had already promised him he would remove the collar one day; a trusting gesture, but would the boy ever trust him back?

He sighed.

“You bored?” he asked the boy instead, getting up from the desk, stretching his tired muscles and going to where the man was sprawled out on his favorite person-size cushion “Wanna do something?”

The man looked back at him and finally ditched the book he had been reading as if it offended him. He was so cute just then, relaxed, messy and half asleep thanks to his reading. He stretched, the stupid shirt roding even higher to reveal a belly button.

Fuck,  _ this was torture. _

“What have you planned?” Ichigo mumbled looking up at him “I don’t think I can do anything physically demanding; my muscles still ache from this morning.”

Grimmjow smirked and sat next to him on the cushions.

“Guess no sex then?” 

The boy glared at him. 

He chuckled. “What you want to do?”

The boy rolled to his side to face him and yawned. “Don’t know, you have movies? Videogames? Something interesting to do apart from work and arguing?”

Grimmjow just blinked at the weird words trying to get their meaning. His eyes traveled again to the exposed belly button. He just wanted to pet his orange hair, maybe trail a hand up that little exposed abs, or finally get rid of the stupid shirt.  _ That _ should be interesting enough.

“Um, no? But I have internet,” he commented opting for casual, making a gesture with his hand and opening the huge projection screen over the window and the human strange net.

The man’s eyes started to sparkle, his mouth hung open. “You have Internet?! Internet still exists?!”

Grimmjow didn’t know what happened next, but the boy just jumped over him and started to play with the screen at high speed as if he had done it all his life, opening a hundred things and traveling thought different pages with the ease of someone who had done this a hundred times. It was beautiful to see, even more with Ichigo’s amazed face, so Grimmjow just leaned back on his own huge and fluffy cushion on the floor, and observed the man play for a while.

“We are gonna watch a movie,” Ichigo said after a while, a mischievous smile playing over his face as he opened a new page. “You will like it, there are aliens, they wanna invade earth, does it ring a bell?”

Grimmjow frowned and ignored that last part as he observed the man move and emotions play thought his face. “What’s a movie?”

Ichigo smiled at him as he clicked on another button and something started to be heard on the room “A story, but better. This was my sister’s favorite, ‘Lilo & Stitch’, a classic”

The boy turned and jumped again over him smiling as he got comfortable between the cushions and next to Grimmjow. Grimmjow just frowned, not understanding what was happening. Why was the boy suddenly happy next to him? He was always so awkward and angry with touches and caress, so why was he suddenly leaning against him on the cushions and not caring about anything else?

Frowning but not daring to protest and bring the topic up, Grimmjow relaxed next to the boy and closed his eyes feeling Ichigo’s warmth and calming presence melting the ice inside him. The movie started, someone began to scream, but Grimmjow didn’t really notice it and just focused on the heat.


	9. Awakening

The sheets felt soft and welcoming against Ichigo’s skin, the covers were pleasantly warm, the mattress firm and feathery under him, and even the rain falling outside the aircraft in one of the first storms of the early autumn were lulling him to sleep. Everything was perfect. Even his mind was also relaxed because here, in this room and in this bed, he knew he was safe. There was no impending danger lurking in the shadows, no rush to go check the rooftop for rain leaks, and no biting frost taking away his heat. Everything was fine.

Yet he couldn’t sleep.

Turning around between the covers as lightning illuminated the room from the outside, he again contemplated the face of the Arrancar who had taken him captive. The man was thrashing between the soft sheets by his side, his breath ragged and difficult, his whole body covered in a light sheen of perspiration, and his eyebrows pulled in a painful frown.

Ichigo wanted to frown too.

He had slept with Grimmjow for only a few nights by now, but each one of them, the monster that was this man had turned into a scared and whimpering child haunted by nightmares. The first couple of nights Ichigo had felt glad Grimmjow was being tortured, he had thought about it as karma kicking the monster for his crimes, then he had grown pissed because he couldn’t sleep, and now he was just confused and tired.

_Every fucking night Grimmjow had nightmares._

The realization had been startling and worrying at the same time. Not even Ichigo himself had been haunted every night after his family died and his life collapsed. Even then, his mind had allowed him some nights of pace, so he could slowly recover from the trauma and keep on living. So why was Grimmjow being tormented so much? Why was his subconscious trying to weaken him and preventing him from resting?

Getting on his elbows, Ichigo again studied the other man carefully. He was handsome, even now, stressed, asleep and sweating, he was gorgeous. His blue hair was tousled over the pillows in a way that pleased Ichigo’s inner mind, his pants were breathless, and his expression pained and needy. He looked way too erotic for what was happening to him. Did he look like that when he was getting fucked? Would a man such as Grimmjow so full of power and dominance even allow another man to fuck him?

A shiver ran down Ichigo’s spine, his body hardening just at the mere thought.

For a moment he wanted to explore that theory while the other was asleep, touch Grimmjow, trace his parted lips, delineate the curve of the pectoral that was showing from the rolled down sheets, maybe bite his dark-colored nipple. He wanted to see what the other would do if Ichigo woke him up like that. It was clear Grimmjow wanted sex, but would he still pursue it if Ichigo was the one in control?

Ichigo breathed again.

And the moment and thoughts passed away.

No. Doing that wouldn’t be right. Grimmjow was attractive, a pleasure for the eyes, but if Ichigo allowed that last barrier to fall between the two of them, he was pretty sure it would be his downfall. Grimmjow had already gotten under his skin in more ways than Ichigo wanted to recognize.

Ichigo had seen the real man, the general loved by his people and respected by his soldiers. The man who was fighting so hard for Ichigo to trust and love him. He had already dismissed his dream of eradicating Arrancars and had even formed a truce with the man for the time being. He could allow nothing more. Then he might not want to leave.

Turning over again, he faced the wall with the moving vines, the flashing lighting and decided to fall asleep no matter what.

Grimmjow whimpered. The sad small sound travelled all along Ichigo’s skin causing goosebumps to rise, and something tight squeeze in his chest. Ichigo tried to ignore it. He gritted his teeth and squeezed the sheets in his fist intent on ignoring the other.

The sob that followed shattered something inside Ichigo.

“Fuck.”

Turning once more on the bed, he gripped the suffering body lying next to him and pulled it against his chest. He cradled Grimmjow’s head against the crook of his neck and then threw an arm around naked shoulders too big for him to hug properly. It felt like a protective embrace, almost possessive, but Ichigo repeated to himself again and again that he was doing this because _he_ wanted to sleep, not because he felt empathy or worry for an Arrancar.

This was nothing!

Grimmjow instantly relaxed in his arms, as if he was indeed a scared child. His cheek nuzzled against Ichigo's neck with a relieved sigh, the strange bone of his mask and his little stubble abrasive against the soft tender flesh on Ichigo’s neck. His arms also circled Ichigo’s waist, pulling him tighter against Grimmjow’s strong naked chest, and a leg also fell over Ichigo’s own trapping him in a greedy hold. 

Ichigo allowed it all. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t allow himself to think as his face also nuzzled his bedmate's messy blue hair, feeling something inside him relax in seconds. How long has it been since someone had hugged him this tight? How long has it been since he had hugged someone? Had it always felt this wholesome? So warm and nice?

Lightning again flashed in the sky and rain poured even with more abandon over the mountains and forest, but in the room, all was silent, warm, relaxing, and safe. Ichigo felt his eyes close as warm arms wrapped around him and deep calm breathing caressed his neck. Protected. Safe. No longer alone.

 

…oOo…

The morning woke up grey and sad as if the storm from last night hadn’t been enough for the mountains and wild nature, and more water needed to be poured over them. Grimmjow observed the grey view from the window, gloomy and unwelcoming, then he turned to glance at the closed door of the great hall again for the tenth time. Ichigo sent him an irritated glare.

Fuck, he felt so awkward.

Grimmjow had woken up rested, relaxed, _and in the arms of a man that had tried to kill him just a few days ago_.

At first, in those first hours of the morning, as the sky slowly illuminated with a pale pink glow between the soft clouds, he hadn’t dared to move. He had just laid there, shocked and amazed. With his arms curled around Grimmjow’s shoulders and their bodies pressed so close together, Ichigo had been cuddling him in a way that had warmed him as no sun had done before.

He had wanted to weep for some reason. With the scent of the other curled around him, the protectiveness, the mere presence of someone else breathing relaxed and trusting against his side, something inside his chest had tightened. Had he ever done this with someone? Cuddle with no second intention? Enjoyed a slow morning with no rush?

He didn’t remember doing something like this before. Arrancars did not do such things, it was a weakness, useless and stupid. _Unnecessary_. But still, he didn’t move. He just allowed the warmth and fluffiness to spread over his body and his whole soul. He nuzzled against Ichigo’s neck with gratefulness, no lust running in his blood this time, just content and delight for this little moment that he could never have imagined.

But the morning had progressed, and in consequence, the spaceship had woken.

Shawlong had called into his room with a warning about the arrival of the fourth Espada. Ichigo had woken with the call, and without saying anything when he had found Grimmjow looking at him intently, he had got up from the bed and begun to dress and prepare for the day. He had acted as if everything was normal and they hadn’t been cuddling just a moment ago. He had stolen one of Grimmjow’s shirts, he had tried to tame his messy hair, and dear god, why did Grimmjow suddenly want to ravage him so much?

However, Grimmjow had done nothing and instead he had followed Ichigo’s routine, dressing and waking up, not knowing what to do or how else to react. Maybe this was normal for humans, maybe this meant nothing to Ichigo, maybe he was used to doing this with anyone. However, now, with both of them seated in the main hall again, with Ichigo eating a small breakfast in utter silence as they waited for Ulquiorra to arrive, Grimmjow could feel an awkward and tense atmosphere settling over them.

He paced the big empty room from one corner to another, as he observed the rainy mountain peaks from the huge windows, and the vines climb the caramel walls. He felt his feeling sift in his mind. What did this mean? Ichigo had cuddled him of his own volition. Did this mean something after all? Should he make an advance? Bring the thing up? Ignore it at all as Ichigo was doing? Should he ask for an explanation?

Turning away again, he almost felt relieved when the doors of the room opened, and two people walked in, along with Shawlong and Di Roy as their guards.

Ulquiorra deep green eyes found his and Grimmjow smirked. He looked the same as always, with white formal clothes covering a lean body that held too much raw power and the sharp intelligence of a predator. His black short hair fell over his sharp cheekbones making him look deadly, his expression was unmoving, his eyes uncaring and cold as he regarded the whole room before stopping over Ichigo who was still eating his breakfast.

Grimmjow didn’t give him an inch. Crossing the room, he approached the man and engulfed him in a big hug, raising his slim body from the ground.

Ulquiorra tensed, his body going rigid as it always did. Grimmjow's smirk turned feral. Ulquiorra hated physical contact, apparently, he had suffered some kind of trauma when younger, but Grimmjow didn’t care. He treated all his friends the same way, and just as he waited, the pale man patted his shoulder awkwardly returning the gesture.

The first time Grimmjow had attempted the hug, he had almost died from the Cero Ulquiorra sent his way. Ulquiorra, however, had changed since then, he was not a traumatized child anymore, and he was healing and growing stronger by the year.

They were all broken, mad and twisted in some way, but they all were trying to survive and doing their fucking best to move on. Grimmjow hated their society and what they had become, but it was at times like this and with people like this, that he remembered that not everything was bad, there were still people among his race he was so fucking proud of.

“You are still emotional,” Ulquiorra said as Grimmjow released him. “It will bring you trouble.”

“And you are still the brick of ice you had always been,” he answered back. “I’m glad to see you, asshole.”

Ulquiorra nodded in agreement, no emotion nor change appearing on his eyes as he regarded Grimmjow. Grimmjow, however, had learned to read between the lines long ago. After years of climbing the stairs of power together, Ulquiorra was one of the few Espada Grimmjow trusted. Both of them were similar in too many ways, they shared so many things and ideals that words had become redundant between them both long ago. They had hated each other at the beginning, but after so many battles, companionship and trust had settled in and since then, they had become something close to friends.

People called Ulquiorra cold and distant, his way of speaking coarse and insulting, but Grimmjow knew much better, he had learned about the loyalty, the control, and the protectiveness the man carried within himself. Ulquiorra’s warning about emotions for example, hadn’t been an insult or a threat, but his own way of worrying about Grimmjow. Grimmjow’s tantrums when young had caused him way too many problems.

Just as he turned his friend towards the table where Ichigo was still eating, his gaze felt on Ulquiorra only companion.

Orihime was a beauty that no Arrancar could ever dare to emulate. She was a slave, human, and to the eyes of many dirty and unworthy, but there was an inner kindness to her, a shine and a luminosity that put even the more beautiful of the Arrancar’s race to shame. She had also wild orange hair like Ichigo that cascaded down her back, and voluptuous full of curves that also pleased the eye.

Her story with Ulquiorra was famous throughout the whole galaxy. Not only had she become Ulquiorra’s mate and partner thought life, but she ruled alongside him and shared power like no other slave in the galaxy had ever done. Even Aizen had accepted her among his ranks. At first, the fact had worried Grimmjow, but after seeing the pair together he had not been able but be glad for his friend. The first and only time Grimmjow had seen Ulquiorra smile, it had been with Orihime.

He smiled at her with the respect she deserved and signalled at the pair to join him and Ichigo on the table.

Ichigo seemed to have finished his breakfast already, and he eyed the newcomers suspiciously, Grimmjow couldn’t help but wonder, would he be able to have the relationship Orihime and Ulquiorra had? That trust, that love, with Ichigo?

His mind returned to the morning cuddles and he had to kick himself to concentrate.

“Ichigo, this is Ulquiorra. Cuarta Espada, and a friend of mine; and his mate, Orihime.” he told him before turning to the pair. “This is Ichigo.”

“Your slave?” Ulquiorra asked.

Ichigo flinched on the table.

“My partner,” he corrected quickly.

The lovely pair shared a look. Orihime smiled pleased instantly, while Ulquiorra only looked at Ichigo as if he was seeing him for the first time, and judging his worthiness. He then turned to Grimmjow with calculation and questions in his deep green eyes.

Grimmjow sighed cursing to his mother planet and back.

Taking Ulquiorra’s arm, he pulled him away from the table. “We had things to discuss, would you excuse me if I steal your husband?” he asked Orihime politely. He would always be polite to her for what she had done for Ulquiorra.

She chuckled behind a hand with innocent amusement in her brown eyes and looked at Grimmjow with that mischievous smile on her face that announced nothing good. Grimmjow tried not to groan. Presenting Ichigo to this pair had been a bad idea and he knew it. 

“It’s okay,” she told him easily. “I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about, I will wait here with Ichigo.”

And again, those mischievous knowing eyes. At his side, Ulquiorra shook and looked away as if he too was trying to contain from mocking him. Grimmjow had never felt so betrayed in his whole life.

 

…oOo…

Ichigo observed the pretty girl sit beside him who had a pure smile lighting her face. She was gorgeous, a young beauty of luscious curves, orange hair that flowed to her waist, and fair and soft features that empathized her kind brown eyes. She was wearing a little dress covered in pink lilies, and a collar like Ichigo himself wore. A slave collar.

_She was human._

Ichigo regarded her for a moment not understanding what he was seeing. She was human, the dark handsome man’s wife, a slave like him, and yet… _she looked so happy_.

There was no doubts or sadness in her eyes, no madness or fear like there had been in Cirruci’s slaves. There were no bruises darkening her pale skin either, and she moved with ease and no pain in her body as she seated beside him. She looked as if nothing bad had ever happened to her, as if she had lived a fulfilling life with no punishment or torment, despite being a human in an Arrancar’s care.

After a moment of intense staring, the woman blushed and looked away from him. Ichigo knew he was being rude, but he just couldn’t help it.

“Um, is there a problem?” she asked shrilly, playing with her fingers over the pretty skirt of her dress.

“You are human,” Ichigo just stated, trying still to find the trick, the catch, the darkness on that beauty.

The girl looked up at him chuckling. “Yeah, like you?”

Ichigo again was left speechless under that smile. Pure and nice, with no trauma darkening her emotions, with an innocence in her very movements that Ichigo had believed it couldn’t exist anymore in their world. His little sister had looked like that once. It made him frown. It made him feel abused and raw inside, as if an injury had opened and started to bleed again. Why was this girl smiling?

“How can you smile?” he asked her without the slightest respect, every muscle in his body tense, on edge. “Don’t you hate them? How can you smile so easily in front of them?”

The soft smile instantly vanished. “Oh”

Yeah, fucking oh. Ichigo wanted to shake her. He had been promising himself that it was okay, that surrendering to Grimmjow’s antics was just so he could escape later, that he still had a chance to regain freedom, avenge his family. He had been allowing himself some slack, he had lowered his guard a bit, but watching this woman, so happy, so submissive, so free, it pushed all his bottoms in the worst way.

Was this what had become of his race? Uncaring carefree humans who surrendered and gave up fighting? Was this his future?

“Ulquiorra saved me from the slave market,” she said slowly, her eyes again on the fingers on her skirt. “I know it’s not an excuse. That saving one person doesn’t redeem you from killing thousands. And I hated him too. At the beginning. I’m not a person that is aggressive or that holds grudges for long, I want to be good, but I just couldn’t forgive them for what they did. However, after a while…”

She trailed off, her eyes distant in memories that seemed sad and pinful for her. So she wasn’t all sunshine and nice. Good. It made him relax, it made something inside him ease up. She had seen the darkness to. Still Ichigo’s frown didn’t ease up. He still didn’t understand.

“What?” he snapped.

The girl looked at him, the soft kind smile returning to her face but this time with a sad edge.

“After a while I understood, you see.” She looked over at the window on the rainy morning. “I always thought Arrancars were the enemy, the bad ones that need to be defeated, but that it’s not true. They are victims like us. They do what they do because they have no other choice, because it’s their own way of survival.”

Ichigo felt his skin crawl at those words. That was the biggest bullshit he had heard for years. Lies. He turned to the table with his fist clenched, trying to contain himself from shouting at such a naïve person.

The girl just continued.

“Oh, but there are some Arrancar that are evil evil.” She told him with a cute frown and worry all over her eyes. “You should keep away from those, they are mad and nasty, they like to do cruel things to people for fun, and they would hurt you if they can.”

And again, she looked back into the past, into memories Ichigo couldn’t see, but could understand just the same. She started to tremble, her skin becoming pale and her eyes frightened as dark memories awakened.

Confused by the visceral reaction, Ichigo realized he had judged her wrongly. She was no fragile naïve woman, she had endured her share of nightmares and pain as he had done, and she had survived with every part of her soul and mind intact, and clawed back at her own happiness. Even if it was with an Arrancar. It was one of the biggest ‘fuck you’ Ichigo had ever seen. He smiled at her back, and touched her arm pulling her back from the dark memories.

Everyone had their own reasons, their own past, he couldn’t judge anybody.

“Sorry,” he told her. He had been an ass. “I’m just…You are the first human I have seen in years, seeing you so happy and uncaring shocked me.”

She smirked mischievously.

“Never mind,” she said clapping his back with a strong hand. “It’s okay, and don’t worry about what I just said. Grimmjow, he is a nice guy, you will be as happy with him as I am with Ulquiorra.”

Ichigo blinked at her. Wasn’t she married with Ulquiorra?

He blushed and started to deny every fucking thing, the night he had spent with an Arrancar between his arms suddenly clear in his mind, the kiss, the lake. But she only laughed and hugged him as if they had been friends all their lives.

The rest of the morning was spent that way, talking about their lives, about their past, about their situation and humanity. Orihime told him about Ulquiorra and about how happy she was that she had met him. She kept on insisting that not all Arrancars were bad, that being a slave was not a death sentence, and that he would be happy too.

Ichigo didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to ruin her happiness.

After some time, they stood up and got out of the room to roam the ship and stretch their legs. They left the hard and dangerous conversation behind, with Orihime clearly disappointed on Ichigo’s pessimism about the whole situation.

Arrancar children, hollows, as Orihime called them, began to follow them curious about the new human on board and still amazed by Ichigo’s growing legend. Orihime only smiled and chased the little ones around the place, happy and smiling and kind, as if this was her everyday life.

As the hours advanced, as they talked and played and messed around with the children, Ichigo let himself relax, his guards lowered again and his preconceptions begun to change. What if Orihime was right? Should he hate an entire race for the crimes only a few had committed? The children he chased around and who bite at his ankles when he was not paying attention were innocents. Nakeem had helped him, Di Roy was teaching him to fight, and they had all only treated him as a host, not an enemy or as the garbage he had expected.

Orihime looked happy too, content and satisfied with her life. She glowed with the feeling, as if she had no more nightmares and battles to face. Grimmjow had promised Ichigo just that life, he had told him he would protect Ichigo, he had already taken care of him so many times, and although he was a complete disaster and a pain in the ass sometimes, Ichigo found himself agreeing with Orihime.

Grimmjow was not a bad guy.

So, what if he accepted? What if he stopped running away? What if he accepted this family, this life, this possibility? Could he give up his freedom and his revenge for this?

Something in his chest rebelled against the idea. It was wrong, they were lies, they were trying to manipulate him again, use him and hurt him. It was all a trick. However, for the first time in years, another voice joined the first. This second voice had been starved and scared for far too long, and it just wanted comfort, peace and someone to hold on, and it cried and kicked and begged at him to take the fucking chance.

That voice wanted Grimmjow to be telling the truth so fucking much.

 

…oOo…

Ichigo observed Grimmjow smile again as the voice from the scream announced his victory with more unnecessary explosions and shiny letters. They were playing videogames tonight. A simple car race among a destroyed city, nothing overly difficult or striking, but the game still had Grimmjow screaming and smirking like the maniac he was.

It made Ichigo want to smile too.

The day had been exhausting and tedious. After spending the whole morning with Orihime and the children, Ichigo had finally gone back to his room to have something else to eat and wait for Grimmjow to return. However, as he cooked some quick noodles and the time passed, he soon realized Grimmjow was not coming back for the afternoon either. He and Ulquiorra probably had too much stuff to talk about, political stuff, dangerous stuff. At least that’s what Orihime had explained to him.

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were one of the most powerful and respected men in the whole galaxy. The statement had made Ichigo pause.  He had intuited it for a long time, Grimmjow had just too much power, the tricks he had used to win against Ilford in his fight yesterday will not work for Grimmjow, but it was one thing to intuit something, and another to have it spelled out for you.

And so, after eating and napping some more, Ichigo had gone back to training with Di Roy, intent on getting stronger and closing the distance between him and Grimmjow in terms of power.  

The training had distracted him from his thoughts, but the session had eventually ended, and physically tired, Ichigo had returned to his room while unanswered questions and doubts squirmed in his mind. Grimmjow had eventually returned too, and as Ichigo bathed and prepared for the night, the Arrancar had made him some dinner: sandwiches that tasted like sandwiches. The Arrancar was getting better at cooking.

Feeling that little and scared voice scream in his head again at the thoughtful gesture, Ichigo had crawled again over the cushions on the floor, and Grimmjow had followed after him, curling his body against Ichigo as if it was a normal thing.

Ichigo had then set a simple on-line game, and so here they were. Playing, cuddling, enjoying a slow night together.

Ichigo knew he was crossing the line. He could feel Grimmjow’s body moving under his. At some point in their car fights, Grimmjow had pulled him to his lap, and they had curled up again. They had also slept like this tonight, and last night they had even cuddled while watching a movie. They were getting closer, the touches gaining a new meaning, and Ichigo knew he had to stop this progression before it was too late.

Yet he did nothing. He felt comfortable, cherished, and wanted. They were feeling that were hard to resist after so long without them. A part of his mind was still turning around Orihime’s words and his own questions. Did he really want to leave? Nothing was waiting for him out there, would he throw away this opportunity for nothing? For his own stubbornness and his conviction that he would be better away from this, that he needed revenge?

Behind him, Grimmjow laughed again with that coarse low growl of his, and Ichigo felt it in his own bones, lush and powerful, full of energy. He was seated on top of the man, both their bodies lying a bit back over the cushions as they regarded the huge screen above. Grimmjow’s arms were around his body, protective and uncaring as his hands played with the screen and controlled the fast-blue car. His legs were intertwined with Ichigo’s, his thighs spasming under Ichigo’s’ hands as the man played the game.

It felt nice. Very nice.

Seating up a bit, Ichigo turned his body towards the man behind him. Grimmjow was smirking like a child with a new toy. His eyes sparkling blue and mischievous, his teeth showing in a feral smirk, and the mask in his face complimenting the dangerous look. His hair was pulled back, and as he moved, the muscles in his shoulders and neck moved with him speaking of the breathtaking power this man had.

Ichigo stared at it all. At Grimmjow’s beauty, at the emotions playing on his face, at the dangerous purr of power under his skin, and for a moment, he wondered. After a while, Grimmjow looked at him. A quick glance since his attention was still focused on the screen, but as Ichigo kept on staring, unblinking, unmoving, he focused on him with a frown between his electric blue eyes.

“What?” he asked, his voice rough, but still with that edge of fun and amusement in it. They were so close, Ichigo felt the words rumble against his skin, and his breathe on his face.

 _‘They are victims too.’_ Orihime repeated in his mind. _‘He is a good man.’_

Ichigo leaned forward, gripped the other by that strange mask he had on his jaw, and kissed him.

It was nothing big, not a hungry or angry kiss like the last they had shared before, nor the slow tender one of old lovers that knew each other’s bodies to perfection. This one was quick and chaste. A little taste, a question in Ichigo’s mind. It lasted just a little moment, just a little gaze of lips and a share of warmth before Ichigo pulled away. But still, he felt Grimmjow’s body freeze under him as if he had been punched.

The whole atmosphere of the room changed just like that. 

He looked at the Arrancar again and at the change in his whole demeanour. The laugh and amusement had flown away, and now he just looked startled and confused. And with that dark and lethal gleam shining back behind his focused deadly eyes. The beast had woken, and his focus was completely fixated on Ichigo now, hungry and lustful. Promising him _so much more_.

Ichigo felt his own pulse jump, his eyes dilate, his body harden with just that glance.

He pushed away from that hard and suddenly immobile body. He noticed how the relaxed arms that had been holding him just minutes ago had gone rigid, like iron bars trying to keep him where he was. Grimmjow’s feet were also braced on the floor, his whole body ready to strike at him like a predator who was very close to losing control and attack.

Ichigo stood up in silence. Then, he slowly walked away towards the bathroom with careful easy steps.

It was obvious Grimmjow wanted to pounce on him. Ichigo could feel it even now as intense blue eyes tracked him away. From his posture, from the way Grimmjow’s whole demeanor had shifted in a second after such a little contact, it was crystal clear the other wanted him moaning under him and begging for more.

_Yet he did nothing._

He didn’t take advantage; he didn’t follow Ichigo asking for an explanation, he didn’t force him even though it was clear who was the strongest of them both. He had always allowed him space, even after the tantrums, the previous kiss, or those times Ichigo’s would have wavered under his own lust. Ichigo had seen the beast several times, he had seen the desire and lust in those eyes. It made him still tremble, it made him still ache from want and need himself, and still…Grimmjow had controlled himself each time because Ichigo had said no.

It made something inside him shift, something click and relax making him feel safe. Grimmjow wouldn’t harm him. Grimmjow would respect his limits. Grimmjow was a good person.

It destroyed yet another barrier that he had put between himself and the Arrancar, between his bruised heart and the cruel world, and slowly Ichigo realized he was going to lose this war. But was that a good or bad thing? Did it matter anymore?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you feel Grimmjow's gay panic? Poor thing, he is so confused, he doesn't know what the hell is happening to him anymore. Orihime and Ulquiorra are gonna have the time of their lives watching them circle each other. So what would happen next? Would they take a step forward and have some happy time? Would Ichigo freak out again? Is drama aproaching? 
> 
> As always thanks a lot at all of you who read, comment and leave kudos, I'm all here for validation and love. And as always thanks a lot to my poor tortured beta Mykko_Chan, hey, I'm getting better at this english-punctuation thing~ 
> 
> Hope you have all enjoyed this.


	10. Flirting

Grimmjow sank in the bathtub filled with warm water feeling emotionally and physically drained. His bathroom looked exactly the same as always, white pristine walls, floors made of dark volcanic rock, and those strange moving vines that climbed up the walls and towards the skylight.

Baths always helped him relax. The warmth and humidity in the room, the solitude, and the little moment of peace before the starship settled in for sleep. It was the only moment of the day he was alone and could unwind from being the stoic and deadly general he was supposed to be. But today his normal schedule had been a roller coaster that had left him more tired and in need of this moment than normal. The morning cuddles, the talk with Ulquiorra and his men, the preparations he had needed to do for the other Espada about to come, and finally _, that kiss_.

Grimmjow touched his lips with his knuckles remembering the innocent little contact. He hadn’t even expected it. One moment he had been enjoying this new video game of races and destruction, and the next he had been doing his very best to try to control himself from jumping at Ichigo. A vast need and desperation had tightened around his body, and, for a moment, they had scared him with their magnitude. Fuck, it just wasn’t fair. It hadn’t been fair how Ichigo had also walked away a second after, leaving him hanging by a thin thread. It hadn’t been fair how he had prepared to sleep and got down under the covers as if the little contact hadn’t meant anything, as if it didn’t change a thing.

Well, Grimmjow had bad news for him, because it fucking did!

Grimmjow didn’t know what the human was playing at. Last time they had kissed, Ichigo had punched him and run away to thrash his captains in a fight, he had cursed, threatened, and been disgusted by the contact. And now he kissed him of his own volition? What the fucking fuck?! He couldn’t have changed opinion so soon, could he? This was just another kind of torture, Ichigo’s little revenge after that proposition thing, or after the whole slavery situation. Grimmjow had been pretty clear on how much he wanted to fuck Ichigo, and now the smartass was teasing him in revenge.

Well, two could play this game. If Ichigo wanted to tease and drive him mad, Grimmjow could tease and drive Ichigo mad too. Let’s see if the man kept resisting after what he was planning.

Lowering the fingers on his lips that were still trying to trace a contact that had been too quick to leave a mark, Grimmjow lowered them under the warm scented water, and grabbed his cock in a loose grip. He wasn’t hard yet, the little kiss from moments ago had been too innocent, and he had been too distracted to really pay it the attention it deserved. Still, giving his cock a few powerful strokes, he brought himself to a full mast in seconds.

He leaned back getting comfortable in the small pond that was his bathtub, and opened his legs a bit to get better access and a nicer position for what he was about to do. The water felt like a hug against his skin, and the wetness made the moves of his hands slippery and perfect over his waking member. He groaned as his fingers finally tightened over it. Loud and dirtily. The dirty sound reverberating in the bathroom walls and being transported towards the room beside it, where Ichigo was trying to sleep.

When Grimmjow heard Ichigo’s surprised gasp, he smirked, knowing his plan was a success. Eye for an eye. Boner for a boner. He would make the boy suffer as much as he was suffering himself.

His body, however, just hardened even further at the thought of Ichigo being able to hear him like this, and his hand took speed over his now throbbing member. A knowing pleasure began to curl its tendrils on the little of his back, and Grimmjow breathed deep the wet humidity of the bathroom, trying to control the moment and the pace, wanting the torture to last. His muscles tensed with the effort of holding back, and his body curled on itself over the water. His legs however only opened more as if seeking the friction, and his movements turned rough and to the point over his cock. Seeking pleasure, contact, and sweet release.

“Fuck,” he cursed. His voice sounding hoarse and breathless just for Ichigo to hear.

He was not used to this. Normally he had no trouble finding a willing partner to share his bed, so things like masturbation had become redundant in his life. He had never before taken his time with a partner either. Mating had been just mating, a quick encounter that released tension and satisfied a need. This, however, was different. Everything was different with Ichigo. Now, for the first time in his life, he wanted to tease, to take his time, and savor every fucking sensation. He knew Ichigo would be too stubborn and proud to come join him, but still, he could take his sweet time.

Of so he had thought.

Grimmjow knew how to touch, how to caress, and where to press to give himself pleasure, but today, it felt as if his control had snapped completely. His hips began to move under the water on its own, following his own hand, making water splash everywhere as he imagined Ichigo on the other room, flushed, hot, and hard just by hearing him touch himself.

_Aroused because of him._

His other hand gripped the edge of the bathtub, needing to hold onto something as that little simple thought turned his body into liquid fire. The thought of Ichigo hard and needy because of him, twisting in the bed, moaning and cursing as he tried not to touch himself while listening to Grimmjow, made him almost cum right there. Could he make him beg? How much teasing could the stubborn human endure?

His hand tightened even harder around his dick, almost to the point of painfulness. He hissed, the sound almost animalistic and feral.

He wanted to find out so fucking much the answer to those questions. His body needed Ichigo alongside him, soft skin under his fingers and rebellious eyes glaring him back between pleasure and lust. The fact that the man was not here, in the bath, moaning under him, his body gripping him tight and deep, was driving him too close to the edge of violence.

He relaxed his grip on his swollen red cock that was now twitching like crazy as he imagined that tight plump ass. He tried to calm himself. Ease his breaths, his movements, and hold on the reins of his control. He could do this. He could masturbate like a man and not a virgin, he could tease and have his vengeance, _he was in control_.

The bath had turned into a total mess. Water had splashed everywhere with his movements, his fingers had dug into the material on the edge of the pool leaving dents, and as he arched back against the edge of the bathtub, he tossed the amenities to the floor breaking a few bottles.

Damn, he was so hard. He didn’t remember being this hard before. He moaned, and groaned, and waited to hear more sounds answering him back from the other room.

None came back.

He rubbed the tip of his thumb distractedly over the little slit of his cock as he waited, and then pressed hard on the spot. He moaned again as dark intense sensations traveled all through his body with the contact. His body spasmed again and Grimmjow cursed knowing he was too far gone. But now he could hear Ichigo pants in the other room, surprised and hard. _For him_. Why was the human stopping them both? Why had Grimmjow even agreed to that? They both needed and wanted this, why should he stop?

He rolled his hips again under the water with a whine. His hands felt coarse and rough against the delicate and over-sensitive skin of his member. It felt good, the friction, the little drag of his fingers over the underside part, his thumb rubbing the soft silky head, _but it wasn’t enough_. He knew Ichigo's body would feel better. He had seen it. He remembered his plump ass, tight, muscular, and so fucking wonderful. It was the perfect ass to bite, to slap, and to grab into as he fucked him hard against a mattress.

Grimmjow didn’t notice his hand speeding up again, his muscles tensing, the noises he emitted turning possessive and dangerous.

He could just focus on Ichigo’s body and the gasps from the other room. The image from the lake clear in his mind. He could have followed him to the shore, bent him down on the grass with his ass up in the air, and fucked him as they both deserved. No softness, no gentleness, there would be time for that later, first, he needed to claim the man, take him, show him what he was missing. And Ichigo would take him just fine. He would answer each thrust with one of his own, he would try to take the lead too, insult him, but after a while, he would be moaning his name and asking for more, his ass milking him dry, taking him so deep and tight…

Grimmjow came just like that with a roar. No delicacy, no control left, just instinct.

Water splashed, the room trembled, and for a moment, his mind turned blank in ecstasy as his body arched and he spurted in the water for a long deep moment.

Then the high disappeared and he fell back into his body. He opened his eyes feeling broken and unsatisfied. The room was still a mess, water everywhere, the vines up in the ceiling shook as if scared of him, and as he looked at his side, he discovered he had torn a piece of the bathtub away with his fingers.

He passed a hand over his face feeling ashamed.

What the hell had that been? He didn’t remember ever losing control to this extent. He had never had the desire to take a partner like that, so animalistic and desperate. What the hell was happening to him? He had wanted to tease the human, have some fun, but after such a spectacle, with his feels and needs all over the place, the human has to be terrified instead.

He groaned and got out of the tub not wanting to linger here.

His cock was still half-hard, as if warning him that the little game had not been enough to satisfy him, and his muscles and legs felt a bit wobbly and weird after the intense orgasm, but Grimmjow ignored it. He dried his hair easily with a towel, and then, he pulled one of his black pants over his hips hiding his hardness.

The tub would need some fixing, the bottles to be replenished and the water cleaned, but his captains would repair it all in the morning with no questions asked. They would look at him strangely, knowing something was up since Grimmjow was not an overly violent guy. Still, he didn’t care.

He left the bathroom amidst a cloud of vapor right after, and stepped into the dark room of his den. Ichigo was still in the bed, under the covers, obviously pretending to be asleep, but his ears were a deep red, and his whole body twitched as if he was trying to conceal something between his legs.

Grimmjow smirked weakly at the image. He got under the covers too, pretending everything was fine, and that he had not just masturbated like an animal in heat. Doing the same thing Ichigo had done to him again and again, as if the gestures, the touches, or the kisses were normal and didn’t mean a thing. His little jerking off plan had turned out a completely mess, but at least, it should teach Ichigo a few lessons about how not to mess with him.

 

...oOo...

The morning was grey and cloudy when Grimmjow pulled Ichigo into the empty hangar of the spaceship. The human had been complaining again, insulting, glaring and being difficult, yet, Grimmjow couldn’t care less. He was happy. Ichigo didn’t seem able to look at him in the eyes, and he blushed now every time they touched by accident or when Grimmjow got into his personal space.

It was hella cute.

So Grimmjow, in his generosity and magnanimity, had decided to take the man out of the spaceship to get some fresh air. That would help strengthen their bond, and it would also help Grimmjow get out of the ship and his duties. Yesterday had been exhausting with Ulquiorra and the others, and today his schedule didn’t promise to be better, and so, for the moment, he wanted to go outside of the Arrancar’s drama.

Walking towards the smallest aeroship on the hangar, he heard Ichigo following him, no longer complaining, but eyeing the little ships around suspiciously. As he should. Ichigo had initiated a dance yesterday, and Grimmjow was way too happy to join him. He won’t give him even an inch. He would taunt, and press, and push him until the human finally gave up.

Following his plan, he chose the smallest aeroship on the deck, a sleek black ship where only one person was supposed to fit, and signaled at Ichigo to climb into it.

“After you, sweetheart,” he said with a smile.

Ichigo glared at him and didn’t move an inch. Grimmjow rolled his eyes dramatically. He knew that after yesterday’s drama Ichigo was distrusting his every move again. It was okay, survival instinct, but if he wanted this wicked plan to work, he needed to pull some theatrics and baits to convince the human of his harmless.

“I’m gonna teach you how to pilot it,” he commented as if offended by Ichigo distrust. He climbed into the little ship himself and sat comfortably on the only seat available in its small space. He pressed his palm on the security panel, and seconds after, the airship came alive under him rumbling like a purring cat. “Didn’t you want a bit of freedom?”

Ichigo eyed him still a bit suspiciously, doubt clear in his features as he observed Grimmjow beginning to click on the little panels and lights with the confidence of someone who had done this a hundred times.

“There is only one seat,” he pointed out.

Grimmjow smiled at him again. Innocently and falsely. “I know.” Then he patted his  thighs signalling at Ichigo to sit onto them.

And again, that glare, the reddened cheeks, and that moment where Ichigo seemed about to insult him and send him to hell and back, maybe punch him again. But then doubt, a little glance at the opened hangar and the cloudy mountains that could be seen outside, and the need and desperation shining sadly in brown eyes.

“Fine!” the man finally said, biting Grimmjow’s bait.

He climbed into the aircraft with angry movements without looking at Grimmjow. When he finally seated himself on Grimmjow’s lap, it was with his whole body as tense as a rock and a warning in his eyes.

Grimmjow smiled his dark smile. This felt like when prey willingly walked into the jaws of a predator ready to devour them. He could even feel the tension, the anticipation, and readiness in Ichigo’s muscles on top of him. Still, Grimmjow didn’t felt the slightest pity when he pressed a little command on the control pad, and the aircraft glass roof sealed above them, locking them both inside the small space.

He worked around Ichigo’s body for a while, moving his hands around the enclosed space and pressing the codes in, without touching the man between his arms in the slightest. Ichigo, however, continued to be tense. He was clearly uncomfortable sitting on his lap, and when Grimmjow passed an arm around his waist to secure him properly against his body before the ship launched, Ichigo even flinched.

The aeroship however, only launched without an incident, the slick machine was quick and fast despite the extra cargo it was taking, and soon, it began a confident flight towards the high rocky mountains. The grey rainy clouds received them above in the sky, the green lush forest moved with the wind below, and the wide-open air filled the remaining space all around them in every direction they chose to go.

The landscape would always take Grimmjow’s breath away. In silence, they both shared the small moment of solitude and freedom, while wild raw nature seemed to feed their very souls. Grimmjow felt his body and shoulders relax as his spaceship got smaller in the distance along with his duties and responsibilities, and like him, the human seemed to relax and melt against his chest as the mountains approached.

For a moment, Grimmjow just let them be. He leaned back on the seat and enjoyed the view and the feel of another’s body pressed against him. Then the moment passed, and the predator with revenge in his mind returned.

Clicking another code on a side panel, he initiated the manual flight. The ship protested that manual mode wasn’t safe, but Grimmjow insisted, and after a moment, a big black rod appeared between Ichigo’s legs with a hiss. Grimmjow contained a laugh. God, could this be more suggestive?

Squirming his hands around the boy’s waist once more, and putting his chin on Ichigo’s shoulder, he gripped the control with two hands and decided to make Ichigo sweat.

“This works just  like one of your video games, you pull it back, it goes up, you turn it left, it goes left,” he turned the control around demonstrating the movements, the back of his palms pressing against the inner part of Ichigo’s thighs, making him tense again. “To go faster you press this button, to go slower, the one under.”

His fingers played with the control, and between his arms, he observed Ichigo blush and twitch, as if debating between screaming at him or paying attention. The image Grimmjow was presenting was more than suggestive, his fingers clearly inciting ideas and memories in the human’s mind, but Grimmjow was far from done.

“Grab it,” he said hoarsely against the man’s ear.

“What?!”

“The control, Ichigo, or do you want to grab something else?” he teased, his voice turning into a whisper.

“Fuck you!” Ichigo yelped. “I’m was referring to me driving, asshole, I have never driven anything, I don’t want to die!”

The man, however, gripped the black control quickly despite his words. His slim scarred fingers curled around the cock-shaped control in an erotic image that made Grimmjow harden inside his pants too. He released the rod giving Ichigo full control over the ship, and put his hands instead on Ichigo’s hips, right on top of the juncture between his thighs and his navel.

“It’s okay,” he assured his human. “If we crash, I will give you first aid. Mouth to mouth.”

Ichigo tried to elbow him, but Grimmjow only dug his thumb on that sensitive place his hands were pressing against, and Ichigo shivered, his whole body go limp for a little second against his, as if his bones had melted. He almost moaned too. The sound reverberating on his throat before being stopped by his mind. The aeroship made a turn in the air, the trajectory shifting and directing them towards the forest’s trees. Ichigo flinched a second after, and righted the controls again, his pulse a rapid staccato on his neck and his breath turning scared.

Grimmjow bit his neck right over the fluttering pulse, his fingers again digging in the delicate weak zone of his navel for a long moment, wanting to actually hear Ichigo moan this time.

“Fuck, you are doing this on purpose!” Ichigo complained, his whole body trying to fight him at the same time as he tried to keep the ship from crashing, and his voice from wavering.

Grimmjow just shrugged. “Obviously.”

Having left his intentions clear, he went back to sucking Ichigo’s neck, his own arousal now evident under the other’s delectable ass. Where it should be. They were pressed to tight in the crowded space, Ichigo was squirming too much and it was just inevitable. If it was up to him, he would fuck Ichigo right there, he would free his dick, lower the other’s pants just the necessary amount, and explore how much Ichigo could take before he lost control of the ship.

But this wasn’t just up to him, nor was this the main course, this was just a little tease, he needed Ichigo’s agreement first, it was now a matter of pride. And so, he kept playing the game, noticing how Ichigo hadn’t yet demanded him to stop as he would have done days before.

He kept nibbling Ichigo’s neck, loving the taste of salt and adrenaline right over the collarbone, enjoying the pulse of the other beating frantically against his lips. He observed with fascination how fast the tanned caramel skin under his ear, turned red and then purple as he kept sucking on the spot, or how when he used his teeth Ichigo squirmed again, another sultry gasp escaping his lips and revealing a weakness Grimmjow couldn’t help but take advantage of.

He lowered his hands, hard and slow down muscular thighs, and then, towards Ichigo’s hips in a lover’s caress. Ichigo did moan this time. He fucking arched against Grimmjow, his legs opening slightly on either side of Grimmjow’s ones, and his hands tightening on the control rod Grimmjow was starting to get jealous of.

Fuck, Grimmjow wanted to touch and bite the skin, he wondered how far he could go with this, would Ichigo allow him to sneak a hand under his shirt so he could twist those pink looking nipples too? Would Ichigo allow Grimmjow to palm him under those trousers? Tease the erection Grimmjow knew was there?

“Wait, Grimmjow. Stop!” Ichigo finally exclaimed, his ears and face redder than Grimmjow had ever seen them “Stop, or I swear I will crash the ship!”

Grimmjow purred, “I didn’t know you were so eager for a kiss.” His hands however stilled. He was disappointed, but he knew his duty here was done.

“Fuck you,” Ichigo hissed at him.

“With pleasure,” Grimmjow answered back. “You are hard,” he said instead, his fingers unable to keep away from the bulge in the other’s pants, and his thumb playing around the zone lazily. Ichigo arched his back once more and his hips pressed into Grimmjow’s own erection as if begging him to fuck him.

“Shut up!” the man said immediately, squirming again as if ashamed of the reaction, obviously wanting to escape but having nowhere to run.

“Want me to help?” Grimmjow asked concerned.

“No!”

“Want to help yourself?”

“I’m gonna murder you!”

Grimmjow smirked, hearing the lie in that answer. Still, he pulled back, Ichigo had asked him to stop and he clearly didn’t want his help, and so Grimmjow, as he had promised, behaved. He was here to tease and taunt, to show Ichigo what he was missing. He would not force the other, he would not lose that hard-earned trust, nor would he become a monster. He had promised that himself, no matter how hard it was. But there were always other ways of persuasion.

He leaned back in the seat, with his hands staying on Ichigo’s hips in a possessive grip and a reminder, and then, he watched the man torture himself in silence for five long minutes.

When he was done with his revenge and torture, he just asked, “Want to return to the ship?”

Ichigo breathed deep. “Yes, please.”

Grimmjow clicked the buttons, stopping the manual mode, and giving control back to the ship’s programming. Ichigo released the control between his hands and leaned back against Grimmjow’s chest with a sigh of frustration Grimmjow understood quite well.

“Still don’t want help?” he asked just in case.

“ _No!_ ” Ichigo yelled at him, venom in his voice “And stop acting as if you are not affected, you are hard too.”

To emphasize his point, he moved his ass hard over Grimmjow's erection. Grimmjow saw stars. The sun. The whole universe. Grimmjow used all the control he had in his body to restrain himself from jumping at the boy. Right here right now. He felt his hands close into fists and open again as if they needed to grab onto something, and he even felt a vein twitch in his forehead from the shear effort of restraining himself.

He smiled falsely to the ceiling of the ship.

“Yeah, I am,” he said easily “Why? Want to help me instead?”

And again, the flush, and again that flinch and squirm over him. Grimmjow bit the interior of his mouth and internally screamed.

“…I hate you,” Ichigo said after a while, his hands going up to hide his face in embarrassment “I hate you; I hate you; I hate you.”

Still, he didn’t try to punch Grimmjow this time, still he didn’t scream, and with surprise and a dark pleasure, Grimmjow realized he had taken more seconds than necessary to answer that last question.

 

...oOo...

Ichigo was hard. To be more precise, he had been hard for the whole damn day. The tent in his pants had become an uncomfortable and permanent problem thanks to a certain Arrancar _that didn’t know when to fucking give up_. Ichigo didn’t know anymore if he wanted to stab Grimmjow repeatedly with the sharpest blade he could find, or press him against the closest wall and finally give in to lust.

The fact that he was having doubts about all this should be worrisome in itself, proof that he was falling into the trap and Grimmjow hands, but he didn’t really care anymore. Why shouldn’t he accept Grimmjow’s offer? Enjoy himself a bit? He didn’t even know if Grimmjow was an enemy or not anymore, so why should he deny himself? He was fucking horny, he had too much pent-up frustration, and Grimmjow was not making things any easier for him as the day progressed. 

He didn’t know what had gotten into the blue-haired man suddenly, before the little kiss yesterday, he hadn’t been provoking Ichigo so much. It was as if Ichigo had flipped on some switch inside Grimmjow yesterday, and now the man was going all out with every weapon he possessed.

Yesterday, in the beginning, the little fact that he could drive the powerful Grimmjow nuts had made Ichigo smile. Turning on another person so much, making them fall to their knees while doing nothing, was nice. It had made Ichigo feel powerful and desired, and like Grimmjow was doing now, it had made a part of him want to tease the controlled and strong man and watch him crumble between his hands. That had been one of the reasons he had kissed him, to see and watch the man fall.

_But then had come the whole fucking masturbation scene in the bathroom, their little flying incident, and now, this fucking fight in the training room, which made Ichigo regret what he had initiated._

They had been fighting for two hours. Grimmjow had dragged him into the training room right after the airship had landed, allowing Ichigo no fucking rest nor giving him time to jerk himself off. The training room had been filled with other soldiers at the beginning, but as their session advanced, they had all left with expressions of embarrassment and annoyance in their faces.

Grimmjow just didn’t seem to be able to keep his hands to himself anymore, and he kept touching Ichigo as if he was his personal drug.

At first, it had been little touches, a little grasp of fingers against the new purple hickey on his neck, a brush of lips against his temple, or a little nibble on his ear. Innocent, and bearable. But then, as the session advanced, they had gotten worse, like a hard slap on his butt, or the press of an erection against his ass as they struggled on the floor. When Grimmjow had fondled his pectorals, thumbs rubbing very sensitive nipples as if it was the normal thing to do while fighting, Ichigo had just seen red. But it had been of no use, Grimmjow was a general for a reason, and although he didn’t use his powers this time, he kept dodging and dancing around attacks, and kept on messing with Ichigo.

And Ichigo could still hear Grimmjow roaring and growling in the bathroom as he touched himself and _broke the fucking bath_ , he could still feel the hickey on his neck from the flight, Grimmjow’s rough and strong fingers digging in his thighs and the dirty talk in his ear.

Ichigo was hard, he was so fucking hard it fucking hurt. He wanted nothing more than to touch himself or do something that would soothe the ache between his legs.  But he couldn’t. It was now a pride thing. He was not going to give Grimmjow the satisfaction of giving up under his own lust. If the man hadn’t been such an asshole today, maybe Ichigo would already be in bed with him, but after this, he was not giving him even a glance. And to think he had trusted the asshole. He was going to make him fucking beg!

Fuck humanity and Arrancars, wrong and right, this was personal now.

Breathing hard, his whole body hyperaware thanks to the stimulus and sexual tension in the air, he tried to kick at Grimmjow in a new attack. The General gripped his leg easily, strong fingers digging into his ankle and making his dick twitch in need and interest. Ichigo grit his teeth painfully. He won’t surrender, he won’t be the one finally giving up!

The Arrancar however, only pulled on his leg forward, making Ichigo lose his balance and fall. And then, with a smirk on his lips and amusement in his eyes, Grimmjow followed him to the ground in a mess of limbs and heavy panting. They rolled over the ground trying to gain leverage over their opponent, but again, as it always happened, Grimmjow quickly rolled on top of Ichigo and immobilized him.

And Ichigo felt it again.

Grimmjow’s hands falling to his hips, possessive and inciting, making him imagine skin against skin, a hard body over him, someone palming him to ecstasy and soothing the pain. His whole body shuddered at the thought. His legs opened by their own volition allowing the other’s body between them, needing him there. Grimmjow rolled his hips over him as an answer. The contact felt obscene as both their erections rubbed together, tight and nice, trapped still in their useless pants.

It all felt perfect.

Ichigo tried to breathe, to control himself and his traitorous body. To not give in. But Grimmjow's deep blue eyes were focused on him again with the dark dangerous and famished look that made him look so damn hot. A predator that knew his power and how it affected Ichigo.

He just couldn’t take anymore.

Doing what his body wanted for one little second, Ichigo gave up control and just did what he had been needing to do for the whole day. He gripped Grimmjow’s shirt, pulled him down harshly, and smashed their lips together in an open-mouthed kiss.

Instantly, Grimmjow’s hands were on him as Ichigo had imagined, stroking his opened legs, gripping his ass possessively, and then sliding under his shirt and up his back with claiming intent. Skin against skin. Ichigo moaned against Grimmjow’s lips, his whole body shuddering and arching in satisfaction under the sensory overload he was receiving. It was too much and too fast after the whole day and all that teasing, but at the same time, his body only craved for more.

Ichigo gripped Grimmjow’s soft hair and then pulled. Grimmjow growled a warning against his mouth, fighting the pull, and trying to devour his mouth deeper, harder and messier. The Arrancar’s nails dug red tendrils down Ichigo’s back in punishment, and Ichigo’s hips moved on their own, grinding against Grimmjow’s with a plea.

They both whimpered.

There was no more teasing, no circling around each other anymore, they just took, and bit, and sucked, and explored. Until Ichigo had had enough, and his dick stopped to ache for a second. Not wanting to surrender just yet, knowing that both their controls were on their last ends and that they won’t be able to hold themselves back for longer, Ichigo lowered a knee down to the floor and then kicked up right into Grimmjow’s hard groin.

The face Grimmjow made was a poem, and an image Ichigo would take with him to his grave.

Pushing away from Ichigo as if he suddenly burned, Grimmjow rolled into a fetal position next to him on the floor with his hands pressing between his legs hard. He was trembling, fast pained gasps escaping his lips as his body rocked slightly fighting the pain.

The image brought back fantasies from the night before, of Grimmjow in the bathroom touching himself and cursing and growling like a wild thing.

Ichigo seated on the floor, breathing raggedly and trying to clear the fog of his mind. He was still painfully hard, but after the wild moment, his mind felt better and focused. His blood was pulsing in his veins hard and fast, his whole body seemed to be on fire, and he wanted to sob and go back to where he had been.

“Serves you right, Grimmjow,” he told the still trembling man at his side, “Next time you attempt this bullshit, I’m neutering you.”

They both knew it was a lie. It had been a lie for a few days by now. Ichigo was losing this battle and they both knew it. This all was just a matter of time now until they fucked each other. Ichigo didn’t mind it anymore, he was a young man and had needs, and Grimmjow was hot and eager. Still, he would keep fighting till the very end out of principle. If Grimmjow wanted him to surrender, he had to learn to do this properly, not with teases and hot touches. Ichigo was not a horny teenager that would fall for that shit. Grimmjow would have to try better tactics if he wanted him.

Getting up from the floor on wobbly legs, Ichigo walked towards the exit ready to take a very cold shower.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😂 hahahaha the cat almost got the cream~ Things are advancing so nicely between them, I had so much fun writing this chapter, I hope you liked the little smutty tease as much as I did. 
> 
> In any case, thanks a lot for the support and love. You guys are the best, love you 💕


	11. No control

 

A few days later, Ichigo sat on one of the tables at the hall observing his surroundings. The huge big hall who had been empty days before was filled with different Arrancars today, and in consequence, several tables, desks, and sofas had been arranged against the walls and close to the windows so people could linger around and talk comfortably.

The little change in the room however was a bit overwhelming for Ichigo.

Having gotten used to the big empty spaces, to the view of the cloudy mountains, and to the soft and caramel lines of the room merging with the ivy and plants, the gathered people, the new furniture and new noises made it feel as if the peace of the ship had been interrupted. There were suddenly too many people on the halls, to many threats on the corners, and too much uncertainty for Ichigo’s liking.

There was also a subtle new tension in the spaceship. A day ago, more Espada had arrived for the gathering along their more trusted people. Orihime had warned Ichigo about a few of them beforehand, a pink haired dude and another tall one she had talked about with fear in her eyes. Ichigo had caught glimpses of the men when they had arrived on the angar yesterday, and had instantly understood Orihime’s fear. There was something wrong with those two men like there had been with Cirruci, and evilness, a completely lack of empathy or care.

Still, not everything was bad.

Starrk, an aged man with a bored expression and a little girl always by his side, had been a surprise when he arrived too. The man was apparently the second strongest man among the Arrancar empire, yet he looked like a middle-aged dad who needed some time away from his child so he could sleep. He had shaken Ichigo’s hand when Grimmjow had presented them, and after Ichigo and Orihime had spent the following hour playing with Lilynette, his daughter, the man had even petted him in the head as if Ichigo had suddenly become his favourite son too.

He seemed to get along with Grimmjow too.

And so, the Espada were gathering slowly but patiently. The meeting that was going to happen in a few days had everyone on edge and the ship a chaos as they prepared for the event and the arrival of their leader.

The fact made that little part of Ichigo’s mind that had been crushed by the invasion want to plan something to destroy them all. It was the moment and the time, now they were all so close and unprotected, a little part of his mind kept whispering. It was now or never.

The conflict was still there. Ichigo now knew that it would always be there, like the scar after his family’s death, or the loneliness at being the last one left. He would always seek that revenge. But now, after meeting Grimmjow, Orihime and the others and understanding their situation, the pain had subsided a bit allowing him to see pass the pain and grieving, past the anger and bloodlust. Now he could control his emotions, take rational decisions, and keep on living. He won’t let his past control his future.

He also had bigger problems now. Like Grimmjow. A horny Arrancar that didn’t know when to give up.

Ichigo hadn’t seem much of the man this last days after their little incident in the training room or on the flying ship. The arrival of the new espada, as well as the others that were due to arrive today and the following days, had the whole ship busy and occupied, Grimmjow specially.

Still Ichigo was glad for the time apart, because the time alone had allowed him to think and take some decisions.

He turned to watch Orihime having breakfast beside him. The pretty and kind girl had quickly become one of Ichigo’s close friends among all the chaos. Their ages were similar, and they had gone through the same things, so it was easy talking to her. She also had a funny way of thinking, and never judged him, which was a welcoming thing.

Right now, the four Espada’s partner was engulfing a bowl of five different kind of cereals along with yogurt and juice. She was dressed in some practical green pants and a huge sweater that looked to have been stolen from Ulquiorra, she had bags under her eyes today, but Ichigo didn’t comment on it, because the pretty girl also had a hickey the size of a fist on her neck too.

Ichigo coughed. She turned to look at him with sleep clear in his eyes.

“So, what are todays’ plans?” he asked easily, leaning down his own chair and observing the room.

She shrugged looking back at the weirdness she was eating. “Lilinet wanted to play in one of the gardens. She discovered Nakeem secret garden yesterday and wants to explore it.” She rose a spoon. “But I think I’m too tired for that.”

Ichigo blushed looking away. Everyone who looked at her would instantly get why she was so tired. Stupid Ulquiorra. And he looked like a man dead inside. Maybe he released everything once in bed with his partner, the pervert.

Just as he looked around, he noticed the dangerous Arrancars, Aporro and Nnoitra, looking intently art him and Orihime. Their eyes dangerous, a mix of hate and lust, of desire and malice. It made his skin crawl for too many reasons.

“I can go with her if you want.” he said looking away and trying to contain a shiver.

“Nah, it’s okay, it will be fun,” she answered with a mouth full of cereals but her demeanour suddenly serious too. She turned to him. “You can feel it too?”

“Feel what?”

“The tension.” She answered slowly. “It’s like a bomb slowly ticking. I’m sure Grimmjow’s soldiers and captains would have already dismembered Aporro and Nnoitra if it weren’t for Aizen coming in a few days. If they haven’t is because they are trying to be civil, but the tension keeps on building. I wonder how far they would last.”

Ichigo again looked around. So that’s what he had been feeling and what had been putting him on edge this last days. Not just the changes and new people, but the hate and anger from Grimmjow’s people. The change had been so subtle that he, with abilities honed in wild nature, had had troubled recognizing it.

But it was still there. The threatening silence where there had been laugher not long before. There were no children playing in the corridors anymore, only guards with hard looking faces and hard glares. Even the training room had turned intense and serious, as if suddenly the whole ship had remembered why they trained and fought for.

“Why do they hate them?” Ichigo asked. “Aren’t all Arrancars on the same side?”

“Oh no, Arrancar’s politics it’s a complex thing, but I’m too tired to explain it now,” she said with a sight, a hand rubbing her eyes, and the gesture being intently studied by a pair of dangerous eyes. “Ulquiorra didn’t talk much about the incident, but apparently Nnoitra and Aporro conspired once to try to kill Grimmjow and Nell, another Espada.”

“What?!”

“Yeah,” she said with a sad smile. “They didn’t succeed obviously, Grimmjow and Nell are among the strongest of the tenth, but the betrayal still left many scars. Aizen even punished them, he didn’t like his best warriors killing each other like wolves.”

That explained it all. The tension among the people, the hateful glances and even the children being hidden away. Ichigo suddenly understood the intent looks of these two men, as if Orihime and Ichigo were easy prey they could pick at, a weakness from Grimmjow and Ulquiorra they could exploit and take advantage of.

Ichigo suddenly noticed the guards in the room too. Shawlong and Ilford were causally lounging in a corner talking to one another, but they kept sending the pair little warning glances now and then, and now that Ichigo remembered, there had always been a captain with him in the last day. Aporro and Nnoitra were a threat to the whole ship, but specially to Ichigo and Orihime, two humans with a close relationship to two powerful Espada.

Yet, instead of telling Ichigo about this new danger, Grimmjow had only planted guards and protectors around Ichigo and Orihime.

He didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Grimmjow didn’t told you?” Orihime asked, her bowl of cereals finally empty and pushed away.

Ichigo shook his head feeling too many emotions curling in his mind. Orihime smiled at him wickedly. Or as much as Orihime, the queen of kindness and light, could be wicked.

“Did you two argue?” She said poking him in the side, then she lifted an eyebrow and leaned close to whisper, “Problems in bed?”

Ichigo, despite himself and the whole tense situation, blushed.

“I don…” He stammered, raising his hands in denial, trying to cover his face. “we don’t…shut up!”

Orihime leaned down in the table, with her body turned towards him in a relaxed pose. She had a huge amused smile on her face, the gremlin.

“It’s okay Ichigo, I know, I was teasing you,” she said quickly patting him on the shoulder. “Still, I have seen how you two look at each other, it’s strange nothing had happened, mmmh?”

Ichigo bristled.

“I don’t look at him in any way!” he denied loudly. A few close people turned in his direction, and he instantly sighed and deflated into his seat. “And…things had happened, just that not what you think.”

Orihime besides him chuckled. “You are so cute sometimes, Ichigo.”

Ichigo cursed internally. This happened because he had opened his mouth. Stupid feelings and stupid Orihime, and stupid Arrancars and stupid situation. She was so damn perceptive with things like this and he was way too inexperienced to have this kind of talks with her.

He rose from the table feeling completely teased by his friend.

“This is none of your business, evil woman.” He said with a smile, planning his revenge, maybe something about those hickeys she had.

“See you in the garden later, then?” Orihime commented as he started to walk away.

Ichigo nodded with a smile. Yet as he walked to the exit, he could feel several pairs of eyes on his body, curious, calculating and amused. He walked faster feeling as if he was part of a circus, and his duty was to entertain an audience.

…oOo…

Ichigo saw Grimmjow enter the bedroom with tired but eager steps. The hour was late, the sun had long ago settled behind the green far mountains, and in consequence, the Arrancar looked exhausted after a day of chaos, and more arrivals. There was a frown between his pretty eyebrows, his jaw was settled into a tense line, and his whole body looked coiled and ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

He still looked as gorgeous as ever, with confidence in every step, with his pristine uniform moulding to every little curve of his body, and his wild blue hair elegantly combed back making him look deadly. No mattered the moment or how Grimmjow himself felt, he commanded a power that called attention, like a king walking among peasants. Ichigo was sure than even in battle, covered by blood and gore, tearing away enemies, Grimmjow would be able to make people horny.

The deadly man stopped in the middle of their shared bedroom, his clever blue eyes looking around in search for something as his hands easily got rid of his black jacket, and his legs kicked his boots away without care. Turning around to face the ceiling-to-floor window, he finally found Ichigo lying lazily on the cushions watching a movie… _And his whole demeanour changed._

The frown disappeared, the tension in his jaw loosened, and the contained posture relaxed into comfort. The Espada smirked at him, a relieved familiar gesture that made something inside Ichigo’s chest tighten. He walked towards Ichigo a second after, throwing himself over the cushions with a grunt, and instantly circling his arms around Ichigo’s torso, cuddling him in the dark night and under the hologram lights of the movie.

Ichigo didn’t resist, he didn’t push him away, or tense as he had done some days ago when Grimmjow had first hugged him while playing videogames. Instead he pressed one of his own arms around the arrancar’s shoulders, accepting Grimmjow’s weight over his body, his blue head on his shoulder and his breath caressing his neck.

Ichigo felt the man relax even further into the embrace, but reluctantly he also felt himself unwind too. He would never recognize it, but the tension in the ship, the glances from the two Arrancars and the uncertainty of the situation was getting to him. Meanwhile Grimmjow had become his new constant, a kind of secure place he could return to every night, and it was in these moments, cuddled in the arms of the other and alone in the darkness, where his worries and troubles disappeared and he could relax.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Aporro and Nnoitra?” he asked however, the morning’s conversation with Orihime having followed him all day.

Grimmjow nuzzled against his neck. “What is there to say?”

Ichigo tensed.

“Don’t know, that they tried to kill you? That they are your enemies? That I should be careful around them?” he said with irritation in his tone.

He had begun to trust Grimmjow despite of what he knew about the man and all that had happened, and he also knew that Grimmjow trusted him in some way. Theirs was not a normal relationship nor would it ever be, but they had reached a certain kind of agreement that Ichigo couldn’t help but like and rely on. They weren’t friends, nor slaves or masters or lovers. They were a mix of too many things and maybe, that was okay.

Yet it was at moments like this when Ichigo was reminded of the difference between them. A normal lover or friend would have warned him about the danger, he would have told him the story himself, made him understand and be careful. Like Orihime had done.

But Grimmjow had not even mentioned it.

As if Ichigo didn’t need to know of such problems, as if he was too low in the scale of power to even discuss such things, and as if Ichigo just needed to care about unimportant stuff like warming his bed or playing games with him. Grimmjow said he cherished Ichigo and wanted him as partner, yet he kept treating him like a pet.

Rising from his position over Ichigo after hearing his pissed tone, Grimmjow loomed over him searching his face with a new frown between his brows. His blue eyes shone in the dark like vivid sapphires, and his hair cascaded over his forehead in a totally unfair and sexy way that pissed Ichigo even further.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t tell you because there is no need for you to know,” he started to say slowly, making Ichigo chest tightened once more in betrayal. “I said it before, Ichigo, I will protect you, I won’t let anything happen to you. If those men lift a finger in your direction, I will kill them all without blinking.”

“I’m not made of crystal,” he protested. “There was no need for Di Roy or Ilford to follow me like a shadow. I can protect myself.”

“I’m not risking it, I won’t lose you,” Grimmjow said seriously. “I won’t discuss your security, Ichigo, learn to live with it.”

And again, the feelings in his chest changed. The betrayal and the uncertainty disappeared to be replaced by a feeling of safety and trust and a very big _annoyance_. It was dangerous. The fact that Grimmjow could manipulate his emotions so easily scared him way too much.

 “Still you should have told me,” he protested, relaxed under the body of an old enemy. “Didn’t you want me to be your companion? People tell friends about this kind of things.”

“I know,” Grimmjow said with a sigh, darkness and a look of fear suddenly crossing his features. “It’s just that…I’m not used to this kind of things, I have always been alone and dealt with problems on my own, I don’t… share and talk about problems.”

That little confession killed the last resentment Ichigo had inside him, they were both learning, weren’t they? They were trying to dance and live with one another. Fuck, he was so weak towards this man. It should worry him. All this situation should worry him.

Yet Ichigo lifted a hand to the arrancar’s check, the gesture tender and comforting, like nothing they had ever shared before. At least not awake, not when it could have consequences. They kept walking on a very thin edge these last days pretending everything was okay.

At least until this moment.

The little caress was innocent, casual, but both knew what it really meant. Another new step into the void. A jump of trust. The path they both walked was new and scaring, yet it felt right. Way too right.

“That’s okay” Ichigo said, his finger caressing the curve of a perfectly sculpted check. “I understand.”

He smiled at the stupid man above him. Then, he rose his face, and kissed the man himself.

This was a different kiss than those they have shared so far and they both knew it. There was no rush here today away from the chaos of the world, no desperation nor lust driving them forward into frenzy. They didn’t fight one another, they didn’t try to take control and prove a point. It was a slow and tender kiss, trusting and easy. Like those old lovers shared, like those that began stories and warmed the hearth in the movies.

It was the most dangerous kiss they had ever shared.

Ichigo felt Grimmjow grow rigid above him with the slow drag of their lips together. He felt the chains and the grip the other man had on his lust like a physical thing between them. He kissed Ichigo back, slow and tender, his tongue dipping into Ichigo’s mouth and trying to memorize him and taste every breath, but asking for nothing more. All this situation had to be painful for him, it had to be driving him crazy, yet he never took anything, he teased, tempted, but never abused.

Ichigo lifted the hand that had caressed a cheek not long ago until his fingers gripped blue soft locks, and pulled slightly. He angled his head to the side, until he could suck on those tender lips the perfect way, until their jaws worked together in a wet sucking kiss, and until their tongues explored one another in a lazily content manner.

With his other hand, he pulled the body above him down, welcoming the weight of Grimmjow over him, his heat, his desire, and everything the man was. It made something inside him sigh in pleasure. That feeling of contempt and rightness expanding. Grimmjow however pulled back. His brows frowning once more, confused, and also looking a bit scared. His eyes searched Ichigo’s as if he could find the answers of the universe there.

“Ichigo?” he asked.

Ichigo shuddered. This was too much, too fast and too soon, but he fucking needed it. He had taken a decision these last days, and now he fucking needing to come to term with it. _Now_.

“It’s okay.” He whispered.

Just three words were all he needed to break Grimmjow’s control. And to see the chains break, Grimmjow’s surprise, and even the fire suddenly growing savage in his beautiful blue eyes, was all Ichigo needed as an answer to his unasked questions.

It had been a good decision.

The whole world seemed to rearrange itself as Grimmjow’s mouth suddenly felt on his neck, sucking, biting, his teeth fighting with Ichigo’s slave collar so he could mark him properly. Ichigo moaned. He angled his head up, exposing his neck to the other’s ministrations, asking for more, _needing more_. It felt good, it felt amazing, as if he had liberated a beast and it was trying to eat him whole. This felt powerful. The end of a chase. The culmination of their fights and games. The beginning of something else.

When sharp teeth dug on a sensitive tendon on Ichigo’s collarbone, he felt his whole body melt in surrender. His cock was beginning to stir in his tight pants and his whole body suddenly pulsed with the rushing blood in his veins. Adrenaline and trepidation pushed him forward. His hands spasmed on Grimmjow’s shoulders, his body shivered. He had longed for this, he had waited and dreamed about it and now that he had allowed himself to have this moment, it felt as if they couldn’t move fast enough.

Grimmjow had gone frenetic too. His whole body suddenly caged him under, trapping him, possessive and eager, not allowing him to escape anymore. This was it, it happened now.  His mouth worked in Ichigo’s neck with hunger, teeth digging, and lips sucking, his body warm and hard over Ichigo, and his hands suddenly traveling over Ichigo’s body as if he didn’t know where to begin.

Finally, after a moment of wonder and disbelief, a hand squirmed under Ichigo’s shirt, and pulled the white material up to his neck in a harsh motion. Strong confident hands started to explore his exposed skin with quick fingers a second after, in a way that gave him goosebumps and made him squirm. Ichigo gasped at the feelings traveling his body, at the intimate contact and the sensation of skin against skin, a hot mouth marking him, Grimmjow finally claiming him.

It had been too long, he had already been touch-starved after so many years, he had been a virgin even before that, and all these pettings felt as if they were burning his skin. He could feel his body jumping under every touch, his skin hyperaware of every caress and little kiss. He was too damn sensitive and unprepared for this, yet he didn’t want to stop.

When Grimmjow’s fingers finally pinched a nipple at the same time his mouth closed again over a tendon, his teeth sucking painfully the already reddened skin, Ichigo last rationality vanished. He moaned, loud and clear, no shame left under such pleasure. His body arched over the cushions, his legs spreading under the body pressed over him, as if he was wantonly asking for more.

He wanted to caress Grimmjow too. He had been wanting to touch him since the moment he had landed eyes on the man, he wanted to tease him, explore his naked skin, caress every rolling muscle and crease of his body. Yet he couldn’t. His body had turned into jelly, his hands could only cling to Grimmjow’s back as the man again pinched his nipple making his toes curl and a whimper escape his mouth. His legs opened invitingly even more, accommodating the other body between them, asking for friction and something else.

Grimmjow snarled against his neck at that, his own hips rolling against Ichigo’s and pressing both their erections flush together under their pants. Then, finally satisfied about the mark he had _clearly_ left in Ichigo’s neck, the Arrancar lowered his head until he caught Ichigo’s neglected nipple between his teeth and sucked as he once more rolled his hips.

Ichigo cried out. His breath was ragged, his cock was trapped in his pants, he wanted to do so many things, but his body could just shiver and tremble under the attention, the friction and the pleasure. When one of Grimmjow’s hands lowered to his pants, to caress the bulge hard and throbbing under the thin fabric, Ichigo sobbed against the over-stimuli.

It was too much. He was not ready for this. He might never be. It seemed he couldn’t do it after all, Grimmjow had been right, he was more than Ichigo could handle. Ichigo won’t survive a night with him.

“Grimmjow, I can’t…” he whispered in the dark room. “…Too much, I haven’t…”

Grimmjow, still sucking a puckered nipple with eagerness, actually whimpered.

Ichigo felt then the shaking hands over his skin tracing his pectorals and abs with adoration, and the ragged breath against his sensitive nipple. It looked as if Grimmjow was the one who had been assaulted and the one on the verge of breaking. Ichigo saw the way those eyes were looking at him as if he meant his whole world, and as if Grimmjow would die if he stopped now. He had no control left. He had snapped and he just couldn’t pull back, Ichigo had pushed him over the edge.

“I know,” Grimmjow said to him, his voice hoarse and low, but with a desperate edge to it. “I know, but please…I will be gentle, trust me, I can’t… _please_ ”

The begging broke the last barrier Ichigo had. Grimmjow was a beast, a monster, the nightmare many would fear, yet, right now, Ichigo felt like he could crush the powerful man into little pieces. That power, that surrendering unmade Ichigo. No one would ever be able to say no to this man, not like this. Ichigo might be a virgin and scared of what was happening, but for Grimmjow this might be his downfall.

Raising from the cushions, Ichigo again hugged the other’s neck and closed their mouths in a deep kiss. His silent way of telling him to keep going. Grimmjow answered with a groan, fingers digging on Ichigo’s hips in desperation, trying futilely to hold onto his last pieces of control and go slower for Ichigo, while his whole body shuddered in relief, as if Ichigo had granted him his life.

Pushing Ichigo down against the cushions once more, no delicacy left to his gestures just raw need, Grimmjow separated from him and lowered his hands to Ichigo’s pants starting to undo bottoms. Ichigo again felt the panic rise in his throat, he had never done this, this was too much, Grimmjow was too much, he would eat him whole.

Yet it was too late.

Finally liberating the last bottom, Grimmjow pulled the fly down, griped the fabric at his sides and with a sharp pull that dragged Ichigo’s body into the arrancar’s lap, he lowered Ichigo’s pants down liberating his throbbing cock into the cold air of the room.

Ichigo felt as if his heart was going to go out of his body.

He tried to cover his face in shame. He was now completely displayed for Grimmjow, his shirt rolled up his chest, and his pants down to mid-thigh. Grimmjow could see everything of him, from the scars on his chest, to his thin and lean body, and even the eager curve of his twitching cock. Ichigo knew he was no model. He was plain even for a human, and Arrancars were breath-taking. He should look pathetic now, a stupid human whore ready to be fucked.

Yet Grimmjow said nothing.

Risking a glance, Ichigo looked at the Arrancar between his raised hands.

Grimmjow was looking at him and breathing _hard_. His eyes were fixed on his body as if he was drinking him up, as if Ichigo was a god that needed worship. The lust in his eyes, the desire, the sharp hunger in them made Ichigo cock drip once more under the Arrancar starving glance making Ichigo blush even further.

But he was helpless under the man. Grimmjow looked like an animal right now, no control, no rationality, just lust and desire. His blue eyes shone in the dark, his clothes and hair were a mess, and the bulge in his pants was just too big. He was aroused because of Ichigo. He looked at Ichigo as if he was thing to be desired, cherished and cared. As if Ichigo was the only thing important to him now.

“Grimmjow…I…” Ichigo begun, ashamed and aroused at the same time, not prepared for all this intensity, yet loving every little bite of it.

Grimmjow however interrupted him, his eyes not paying attention to Ichigo anymore, just fixed on his body, on what was in front of him, on the dream he had been dying to touch for months. He stroked a trembling hand up Ichigo’s tight looking wrecked.

“I-I need…”

Grimmjow lowered his head with a desperate sob, he opened his mouth, and just like that, he swallowed Ichigo’s dripping cock in one go.

Ichigo lost his breath. The feelings suddenly spiralling over his body were suddenly to intense to even moan or scream. He just arched once more over the cushions with his mouth opened in a silent scream and his eyes closed tightly. His body went rigid, his mind overwhelmed by pleasure, emotions, and the sight of Grimmjow gorging himself on his cock.

Then Grimmjow sucked him. Hard and slow. His mouth going up his whole length, and then down with sloppy eagerness, his teeth dragging over the underside of Ichigo’s dick in a dangerous way.

Ichigo felt his soul leaving his body.

Grimmjow didn’t pay him any attention, his mind far gone. His tongue only traced every vein of Ichigo’s dick with glee, his hands gripping possessively his thighs and preventing Ichigo from escaping away from him. His eyes turned unfocused with lust and desire as he devoured Ichigo without mercy. His head going up once more, popping his cock out of his mouth with an audible sound, and down again. Sucking his dick as if he never wanted to let go, as if he needed it for living. And again down. Up. And down.

Ichigo tried to breathe, he tried to get away from the overwhelming feeling, but his body no longer answered him. His arms and legs trembled, his eyes seemed to be fixated on the sight before him, on Grimmjow drugged and blissed eyes as he sucked his length as if it was the best thing that had happened to him. It was a sight to beautiful to stop it. It was a moment he couldn’t dare preventing.  

As his dick disappeared once more down the other’s mouth and between eager parted lips, Ichigo’s hips thrusted up, his legs opening on their own volition seeking more friction and contact. Grimmjow however pushed back, Ichigo cock leaving his mouth with another sucking sound, and making Ichigo sob as his hands tried to push that velvety hot mouth back down.

Grimmjow took a breath, the air caressing over-sensitive skin and making Ichigo tremble more violently. Then his tongue returned to heated skin as if unable to let him be. It massaged Ichigo’s cock’s head, licking every little drop of precum and pressing harshly over his slit as if seeking more, wanting more.

His blue eyes looked as far gone as Ichigo’s, there was no world, no conflict, just Grimmjow’s mouth, and his clever tongue. When the man again lowered his head to choke himself on his cock, Ichigo knew they were gone. They had lost control, this had been too fast and sudden, they both had needed this more than they had wanted to recognize.

He screamed this time when Grimmjow sucked him even harder, even deeper down his throat. He felt Grimmjow’s nails leaving more red marks on his thighs, and a moan against his cock, and his hips again thrust up into that welcoming mouth. And this time, they didn’t stop and Grimmjow allowed it. Ichigo thrusted fast and deep into the other mouth, fucking the other’s skull in a way that should be painful. Yet Grimmjow took it all, another moan reverberating against Ichigo’s dick, and strong hands again ghosting over Ichigo’s skin, pinching nipples, opening his legs more, and tracing marks and hickeys as they pleased. Pushing him forward, encouraging him deeper.

Ichigo didn’t last long with that. When Grimmjow’s fingers finally spread his ass as if to caress even more delicate parts of his body, he climaxed down the other throat like an inexperienced teenager. It was disappointing, he had wanted to touch too, to pet and caress, to drive the other mad and crazy with lust and want, yet there was no way of stopping this.

The orgasm passed over him like a tsunami. He could feel his body spasming, his throat working over another mute scream, and his cock spilling down an eager mouth, but the pleasure overwhelmed it all. It felt as if it could sweep him away, dangerous and lethal, but it also felt liberating, no more lies, no more hiding, just accepting it all.

He fell down into the cushions disoriented and breathing as if he had run a marathon.

Grimmjow loomed over him, his face still partially red, his eyes still unfocused and his hair a mess, but a look of worry and concern was now new in his blue eyes. It took Ichigo a while to notice he was talking.

“…Fuck, Ichigo are you okay? I’m sorry, I lost control, please don’t hate me. Are you alright? Please, please, I’m sorry, I should have stopped, but you looked so damn gorgeous”

Ichigo wanted to smile stupid and amused. Fuck, it had been the best fucking experience of his life, and Grimmjow was apologizing? Dear god. He was such a stupid man. Yet he still couldn’t move his body, and he wasn’t sure if he could talk.

He nuzzled against Grimmjow’s hand in his cheek instead.

“God, fuck, you are fine, good.” Grimmjow sounded way too relieved, did he really think Ichigo had died from sex? Did they need a human sex talk? “Do you hate me? I’m sorry okay, I’m not usually like this.”

Ichigo shook his head as if dizzy. “…‘t ‘s awesom’…”

Grimmjow smirked, a relieved sigh escaping his lips. “Thank god.”

He flopped down next to Ichigo, and cradled him closer to his body, He rearranged Ichigo’s shirt and pull it down his body once more, however, he only pulled Ichigo’s pants down leaving him half naked against his still dressed body. Ichigo felt too tired to complain to the pervert.  A pervert that had given him the best blow job of his life. Did that make him a pervert too?

“S’rry” he said slowly. “D’n’t think I c’n give ya’ a blow back”

Grimmjow next to him actually blushed. “Um. There is no need for that.”

Ichigo looked at him confused and still dizzy. Then he finally understood what the other meant and he groaned, his cock twitching in interest despite having just orgasmed. Fuck. _He was the pervert_. But it was hella hot, had Grimmjow come undone just from blowing him? Damn they had really lost control there, hadn’t they? Could they do it again?

He tried to squirm a hand under the other clothes just to really check, he hadn’t touched Grimmjow at all today despite his wishes, and it just felt like a waste. However, Grimmjow stopped him before he could do something, he looked mortified and it made Ichigo want to tease him. Still he was too tired to properly fight against the Arrancar, he might have left his body behind for a moment there, and it was hard coming back.

“Next time then,” he said easily, feeling his normal speech slowly return to him.

“Nah, it’s okay,” Grimmjow said shrugging, his fingers tracing the hickey he had left on Ichigo’s neck absentmindedly, as his other hand shamelessly massaged Ichigo’s ass. “If I lost control with this, with you giving way I might turn berserk.”

“That’s fine,” Ichigo answered with a yawn. “Eye for an eye, you see. I think I fainted back there for a bit.”

Grimmjow chuckled and kissed his nose with a proud smile that made Ichigo’s chest against warm. He felt content, soft and relaxed in a way he hadn’t felt for years. He wanted to stay awake, talk with Grimmjow about stupid things, maybe tease him about the whole incident as he clearly deserved, have a second round? However his body was done, and it pulled him into a restful sleep without effort.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First times are always hard to write. The feels of initial shame + lust + overwhemt is triky, I'm not 100% safisfied with it, but it's like the 20th time I have re-checked this and I thinik it's enough. I hope you liked it in some way. I'm also sorry for taking so long to update, halloween tends to complicate things, yet I will try to go back to normal shedule now. 
> 
> Like always thanks a lot for all of you reading, commenting and supporting this. And like always thanks a lot to my dear beta mykko_chan, who keeps on helping despite the chaos of life. 
> 
> Love you all.


	12. Science

 

Ichigo woke up feeling strangely liberated, warm and at peace. For the first time in years, he had had a full night of sleep, with no nightmares about his family or his dire situation, with no worries about the future, and no impending danger waiting for him when he woke up. For once his mind felt calm, rested, and content as it used to be before the apocalypse, and his body ached in some places that made him want to blush.

It made him want to smile stupidly too when he remembered the night before.

Squirming between the warm covers, his movements languid and sleepy, Ichigo searched for the warm and big body that was always next to him in the bed. Grimmjow was still sleeping on his side, his eyes closed and his face relaxed and at peace as his blue hair cascaded over the pillows. He looked handsome like this, open and vulnerable as he slept, almost human, it was a side of the deadly Arrancar that Ichigo was sure not a lot of people had seen before him.

Carelessly Ichigo climbed over Grimmjow’s body, flopping over the man’s body. His arms hugged the other torso, and his legs wrapped around the man like needy pet asking for cuddles. It felt childish, stupid and dangerous. A human jumping an Arrancar. Yet, Ichigo wanted to let himself go for a while more, he didn’t want to think about the outside world and consequences, he just wanted to be happy and enjoy this little moment of safety and companionship with another being. A little instant of peace after all those years alone with no one by his side.

He had had sex with Grimmjow. Kind of. He knew that was an important change in their relationship and that the dynamic between them was going to change in consequence, yet he didn’t care about it now. Now he just wanted warmth, hugs and kisses.

Grimmjow just groaned annoyed under him, not wanting to wake up, and rubbed his face against Ichigo’s neck. Ichigo chuckled. He was so different while asleep, no frown, no tense and dangerous smirk, no controlled power waiting to strike. He was a normal man now, sleepy and relaxed, without the pressure and responsibility, he looked like the man he could have been had he not been born into the Arrancar society.

Ichigo poked him between his eyebrows observing the soft and elegant lines of his face. Grimmjow was pleasantly naked under him, like he always was when he slept, and Ichigo was also half naked too, only wearing the shirt Grimmjow had given him. His body was beginning to stir, memories and the freedom of contact giving him ideas. He could not forget the fact that he hadn’t touched Grimmjow yet, and he wanted to explore and pet the man to his heart’s content, but he felt lazy today, and so he only kept on delineating Grimmjow’s eyebrows and the shape of his Arrancar’s mask, pressing fingers against his lips and tracing the line of his jaw.

Grimmjow frowned at the contact obviously not wanting to wake up. His arms moved from his sides to grab around Ichigo’s waist, and then, he flipped him under him, trying to immobilize him so he could keep on sleeping. The movement felt normal, easy, as if Grimmjow was used to waking up to Ichigo touching him and demanding attention and knew how to react.

His arms tightened possessively around Ichigo’s middle, and his face nuzzled against his neck once more, right over the sensitive bruise Ichigo earned from his teeth the night before. Then, after a moment, he relaxed once more in sleep, his weight and whole figure covering Ichigo protectively, and almost started to purr.

Ichigo blushed and covered his face while internally screaming. Grimmjow was deadly, dangerous, but he could also be so fucking cute it was unfair. He was almost like a wild animal who didn’t know how to properly behave but kept on trying. Like when he had cooked him lasagne, or that time with the stupid proposal. He was stupid, obnoxious but he had an earnest in his ways that made Ichigo weak.

“Ichigo?” the blue haired man finally asked, his head lifting and his sleepy eyes searching his face still covered by his hands “What are you doing?”

Ichigo took a deep breath trying to keep himself from kissing Grimmjow stupid right then and there, and lowered his hands. “Nothing”

Grimmjow yawned. “All right”

He went back to sleep on top of Ichigo as if was all he needed. Ichigo squirmed under the other’s weight once more, his hands instantly going to Grimmjow hair, and his fingers digging into blue soft locks he suddenly loved to pet. He didn’t mind the weight of the other over him as long as he could keep on touching and petting and exploring for as much as he wanted.

“Ichigo…” Grimmjow said after another long moment of pets and caresses and purrs “…you are hard.”

“Shut up!” Ichigo said mortified, his face so fucking red for a hundred different things and reasons. Stupid Grimmjow and his cute demeanour. Stupid Grimmjow and his horny mind. “Whose fault do you think it is?”

Grimmjow lifted his head once more, his eyes sleepy, his hair still messy as Ichigo fingers kneaded it, but now a lazy smirk appeared . He might look sleepy and lazy, but the predator was prowling once more.

“Is that why you woke me?” he asked casually, his body moving languidly up Ichigo’s body until their faces were close. “Want me to take care of it?”

Ichigo looked away.

“No, I…” he had only wanted to touch Grimmjow. “Sorry for waking you so early.”

Grimmjow yawned once more, finally flopping to the side with a content and satisfied smile. He looked tired, but it was obvious he was very proud of himself and what he had achieved the night before. The pervert.

“t’s okay,” he said easily, his hands also flying to Ichigo’s body to trace the hickey on his neck. “I wanted to show you something anyway.”

“What is it?”

Grimmjow, however, only shook his head and stood from the bed in all his naked glory. Ichigo tried to breathe. He was twenty-five years old, a healthy man and who had gotten screwed for the first time the night before, _yet he fucking tried to keep it in his pants_. Controlling himself was not exactly easy this time as Grimmjow stretched raising his arms above his body giving him a full view. Ichigo squeezed his legs close and the erection between them, and counted to ten and then ten more.

“Let’s wake up and eat first,” Grimmjow said giving him a knowing smile after the exhibition.

Ichigo again blushed mortified by his own libido, but getting up, he just followed Grimmjow. His body might be ready and willing for this change, actually, it might be starved for it, but Ichigo knew it was better to take things slow. He secretly thanked Grimmjow for not pushing him in the least, what had happened last time had been…awesome, but Ichigo still needed to process it all.

They worked slowly together, the routine an old one between them by now. They dressed, cooked and prepared a quick meal just for the two of them that they ate on the cushions next to the window. The sun was slowly rising behind the mountains, the hour early, and the spaceship was still asleep. They didn’t talk, they didn’t touch not even glancing at one another, yet the moment felt intimate and relaxing, and just what Ichigo needed after the tension of the last days.

After they finished eating and washing the dishes, Grimmjow just asked Ichigo to follow him, and together, they walked the now empty corridors of the spaceship towards the rooms reserved for Grimmjow’s collections of wild things, towards the place the panther had her habitat, and Nakeem his secret garden. Towards the area of the ship no one dared approach, where the corridors turned raw and dark.

There, pressing another code on the datapad of a new room, Grimmjow showed Ichigo a room pretty similar to the panther’s one but also completely different. The habitat here was different in that it resembled the mountains Ichigo had been living in during the past two years. There were tall pines that reached the ceilings between white brumes and fog, and floors covered by pine needles and slippery rocks that had been a death trap at the beginning. There was even cave on the far edge of the place were soft little noises could be heard among the wind and the leaves’ sounds.

Ichigo looked at Grimmjow frowning searching for an explanation.

The tall man however only smiled mysteriously and pushed him towards the cave and the ruckus happening there.

“That’s your surprise,” he told him. “Go see it.”

Ichigo doubted. The panther from last time had almost given him a panic attack, and if this was something like those strange plants with weird appendages or the monstrosities he had seen in Nakeem’s garden he was going to have a very serious discussion with Grimmjow. He wanted to get rid of nightmares not create more.

This could also be a trap too, another last way of manipulation. Just because Grimmjow had gone down on him last night, it didn’t mean Ichigo was going to trust him so blindly. He might have begun to trust him, but there were still some big steps they needed to take. Putting his hand on a wolf’s mouth just because he asked was still a big no on Ichigo’s list.

More noises were heard from that little black cave among the rocks. Grows and snarls, but they sounded small as if the animal producing it was nothing bigger than a house cat. It calmed Ichigo a bit. If Ichigo was bigger he probably had an advantage in case of attack, right?

Ichigo looked at Grimmjow once more trying to find some kind of trick or catch, however, the Arrancar was only looking innocently around the place, clearly pretending not to pay him any attention. He looked almost eager for Ichigo to see whatever was there. No maliciousness nor trickery emanating from him this time, just excitement and playfulness.

Finally, curiosity got the better of him, and Ichigo approached the little cave.

The noises instantly stopped as if the animal had finally noticed he and Grimmjow there and Ichigo contained a breath secretly hoping for it not to be some weird alien monstrosity. With a few more steps Ichigo finally got closer to the cave, and with care, and an escape plan already forming in his mind, he kneeled down peering down the black hole.

It was at the moment, where the little animal inside of it came out, surprisingly followed by another. The first one was albino white. The second one was the deepest black.

Ichigo felt his heart stop, and his mind go blank.

They were two little wolf cubs, barely able to walk and stand upright. They looked feral and adorable at the same time; in the way all baby animals were. The white one was obviously an albino, his blue tongue poking out of his mouth as he glared at Ichigo, obviously distrusting him, while the black one only approached him, smelled at his hand, and proceeded to flop down next to him and lick his hand as if it was the most normal thing to do.

Ichigo tried not to make the comparison, it would hurt too much, however his mind could only watch these two little cubs and be reminded of another pair he had found long ago in a cold winter night.

“They are your wolves,” Grimmjow said from behind him, his voice serious, but with an edge of worry in his mind.

Ichigo knew he was hyperventilating, he felt paralyzed, as if the world had punched him. He wanted to cradle the pups, believe in this truth, but deep down he knew this was all impossible, a part of his imagination or some kind of hologram produced by Grimmjow’ tech. Deep down the knew the harsh truth.

“They…died,” he said spilling the words into this world. Finally stating a fact, he hadn’t wanted to think about. Facing the part of his soul that had been broken once more in a fatal injury. He hadn’t been able to protect his family once more. He had failed once again.

He instantly felt Grimmjow’s arms around him, his face in his neck, cradling him in a protective embrace, that should not yet part of their relationship. It made him feel raw and vulnerable, more than he should feel around this man.

And as if reading Ichigo’s feelings, the white and the black wolves snarled at the Arrancar.

“They are their clones,” Grimmjow explained “Once I knew how Cirruci had captured you, I ordered a search for the wolves, but it was too late. We could only recover their genetic sequence and clone them. I know this is not the same, they are babies with no memory nor relationship with you, but it’s the last thing I could do. I’m trying to give them a second chance”

Ichigo felt a sob on his throat. _So they were real_. This was his family, these were Shiro and Mugetsu, his annoying furry brothers, this was no illusion, no trick, no deception. They were real. A second chance. A change to protect them and give them what they deserved.

“Are you angry?” Grimmjow asked.

Ichigo shook his head. He lowered a hand to pet Mugetsu’s head who was looking intently at him and snarling at Grimmjow, and the little pup preened under the attention as if he had missed Ichigo too. The little gesture broke and renewed Ichigo heart in a second.

They were his pups. They were alive.

He whimpered. He gathered both pups in his arms and started to give them kisses and put his face to their soft fur tickling them. Mugetsu licked at his face and at the tears in Ichigo’s eyes. Shiro only dug his little fangs into his arms with no real strength on the gesture, the pretending bastard.

He wasn’t alone anymore. He still had the remnants of his family. He would need to start all over again, do this all over again, but it was better than nothing.

“Thank you,” he said after a while when he felt he could talk without sounding like a strangled version of himself. He turned to Grimmjow to smile at him afterward, his feelings and emotions a complete mess in his chest.

The deadly man however actually blushed a deep red, his eyes opening in surprise as if he hadn’t expected this.

“There is no need to thank me,” he said looking away, and a hand going to his neck in embarrassment “And they still can’t live with you, Nakeem said he still needs to monitor them and…”

Ichigo just grabbed the stupid Arrancar by his shirt, pushed him forward to kiss him. A hungry, needy, kiss full of tears and happiness. A kiss that melted the last barriers he had built around his heart and made him surrender.

Shiro bit Grimmjow this time, hard and painfully. Mugetsu smelled him and snarled displeased trying to get away from Ichigo’s arms. Ichigo let them, he also let Grimmjow bite him once more on the lips, he allowed more tears to fall, and it all to happen. He allowed it because when they separated it was Grimmjow the one who looked out of words and completely destroyed, and because Ichigo understood then, that he was not going back from this. He was fucked. He was in fucking love with the bastard.

…oOo…

They spent the morning with the two little wolves, playing with them among rocks and the pines and slowly forming new bonds for the future. Meanwhile, Ichigo told Grimmjow stories about his pets as if he wanted to preserve the memories in some way, he told him about how the white pup had once attempted to fight one of the mountain bears, of how the black one tended to fall asleep in the middle of hunts and action, his whole demeanor lazy and bored most of the time. Grimmjow listened to every one of them, he played with the pups too and kissed Ichigo between stories as if he too needed reassurance and love.

As the morning advanced several of Grimmjow captains came to the room demanding Grimmjow’s attention for this or that problem. He was the leader of the spaceship after all, and too many things were happening around them to be ignored, the meeting was about to happen in a week and there were preparations and new guest to tend too, yet Grimmjow refused every one of those calls and instead spent the whole morning with Ichigo.

When the pups finally fell asleep on top of Ichigo, too young and tired to play any longer, Ichigo put them in their cave, and followed Grimmjow out of the room and into another to see Pantera. The huge black cat approached them both once more, and this time she sniffed at Ichigo curiously, clearly catching the scent of the two pups on his clothes. Grimmjow petted it for a while, he played catch with it among the jungle of the habitat, and meanwhile, Ichigo observed. Finally, as Panthera grew bored of Grimmjow attempts to coo her towards Ichigo’s direction, they both left the inner part of the ship and returned to their rooms. There were more kisses then and heated touches as they finally fell on the bed.

Grimmjow felt as if his whole world had changed in just a few hours and a few weeks. Then his daily life had been about surviving, protecting his people and himself, it had been routine, black and white and lacking all kinds of emotions, but now there was something more. So much more. Now he could touch Ichigo and see him sigh in pleasure between parted lips as they slowly kissed just for fun, he could spend hours with him talking about nothings and feel something inside him warm up when the human smiled at him. Now there was happiness and pleasure while before there had only been instinct and violence.

He felt way too insecure.

He had always known how to fight for what he wanted, he knew how to take and demand, but this was different, a whole new world where he didn’t know where to step. He adored Ichigo, how he was and how he was expanding his world. He also loved the way he blushed while embarrassed, the way he smiled at him sometimes as if Grimmjow was stupid and naïve one about the world, and dear god _the sex._ Grimmjow was going to have the visual of Ichigo climaxing under him from the night before, hanging in one of the walls.

They were just little things and emotions, little moments stolen at night or between meetings, but they meant way too much now. He didn’t want to lose all this. He was way too afraid to lose Ichigo and what had grown up between them because of a mistake on his part. He didn’t know how to behave in this soft and peaceful situation and was too scared in stepping in the wrong direction and losing all.

And so, when Ichigo pushed him down onto the bed and straddled his hips with a clear intention in his mind, he doubted. Yesterday he had lost control, it had disappeared from his mind as if it had never existed, and for a moment, when his mind had finally returned, he had feared he had done something bad. He had learned that with Ichigo he needed to take things slowly, no matter how much he wanted to fuck the human against the mattress and bite and claim him, he needed to give him space and time.

He put a hand on the human’s chest, pushing him back and ending the kiss they had been sharing.

“Wait,” he said, his body thrumming under the rigid control he now walked with on a daily basis every time he was around Ichigo “We don’t have to do this.”

Ichigo, above him, huffed with the fire of lust in his eyes. “Try to stop me Arrancar.”

Grimmjow frowned but didn’t fall into the provocation, he had been an asshole yesterday, now he would be the good guy.

“Ichigo…” he began.

The other however only smacked his hand away, leaned down and gripped his hair pulling his head up. The harsh treatment, the danger of exposing one throat to another person and Ichigo’s sudden aggression made his cock twitch in interest. A rival, someone worth fucking whispered to him. Grimmjow hissed. No one had ever dared treat him like this, this all was exciting, this all made the feral part of his soul want to respond and show the human who was on top.

They were playing such dangerous games.

“You had your fill yesterday,” The human above him complained, deep brown eyes looking down his blue one, his voice starting to sound pissed too. “Now is my turn.”

Ichigo’s mouth closed around Grimmjow neck eager and intent, and he started to suck right then and there. Hard and wet and completely inexperienced. It turned him mad once more. Everything inside Grimmjow became alive with desire and pleasure as if a bomb had gone off inside his body just at Ichigo’s little touch.

The human had so much power over him it should scare him, yet Grimmjow only shifted slightly giving him better access. The neck was a weak spot, no one should bite him there, yet, when Ichigo teeth sucked on a tendon, Grimmjow felt his resolve slowly melting away. Fuck, Ichigo might be new to all this, yet the human learned quick and he was so good with his mouth, it was unfair. How would it feel to make him such his cock?

“You were completely against this a few days ago!” he still complained, trying to not fall like he had done the night before, needing answers, needing consent.

A hand went under his shirt as an answer and started to fondle one of his pectorals with reverence, no embarrassment nor reticence here. Ichigo might have doubts when Grimmjow touched him, but he obviously had no problem when he was the one doing the touching. His thumb and forefinger squeezed a nipple. The mouth went lower, biting a collarbone now. Their erections  rubbed together between their pants.

“I changed my mind,” Ichigo answered, his fingers fondling the ridges and curves of his muscles with a fascination in his movements.

“Just like that?” Grimmjow kept on protesting.

“Yes.”

“Why…?”

Ichigo rose his head and glared at him.

“Grimmjow, I’m a horny man who had been wanting to do this since I was fifteen,” he said now obviously pissed “So shut up and let me do this, or fuck me stupid against the mattress as you promised days ago.”

Grimmjow blinked. Then he smirked. Well, if he put it like that. Gripping the other’s waist closer to his body, he sat up  on the bed and then pushed forwards until he had the human completely under him. He smiled at him predatorily as if a cat about to get the cream and so much more.

“As you wish,” he said politely.

He kissed Ichigo again because it would be a shame not to do so. Then, without patience, without needing his control anymore, without needing to check for Ichigo’s approval once more, he let it all out.

The beast and the man became one. The deadly commander and the Arrancar merged into his mind just for Ichigo. There would be no more pretending after this, no more hiding and playing nice. Ichigo had demonstrated he could handle both his sides and so Grimmjow was done controlling himself.

His hands got rid of the shirt the human wore, then his pants, and then every little piece of clothing was torn apart from the body he had been lusting for  until the human laid bare under him once more with nothing more but Grimmjow’s collar and his bites on his neck.

It was what he been dreaming about, the culmination of the hunt. The human had that fire in his eyes that made his blood boil and his cock harden, and hadcompletely surrendered beneath him, naked and soft, ready and willing to be eaten up. This was what he had dreamed about all his life, this was what he had needed. Grimmjow finally got his slave, his companion and his partner.

He had finally found his mate.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You thought I have killed the wolves for real didn't you? So little faith in me and science. Anyway, this chapter was supposed to have the smut in it, I don't like to do clifhangers, but the chapter was getting to long and I decided to cut it, that's why it's a bit shorter. 
> 
> Also, I wanted to tell you that I will be a bit too bussy till mid january and that I might not be able to update as much. Sorry dears. Have a happy chritsmas, new year, Hannuka, or reyes magos. And as always thanks to my dear beta, readers and commenters, love you all.


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